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CHIEF  PEEIODS  OF  EUEOPEAN  HISTOEY 

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CHIEF  PEEIODS  OF  EUEOPEAN  HISTOEY 


SIX  LECTUEES 

READ    IN    THE    UNIVERSITY    OF    OXFORD 
IN    TRINITY   TERM,    1885 

WITH  AN  ESSAY 

OK 

GREEK   CITIES  UNDER  ROMAN   RULE 


EDWARD  A.  FREEMAN^  M.  A.,  Hon.  D.C.L.  &  LL.D. 

EEGirS   PEOFESSOE   OP   MODEEK   HISTOEY 

PEILOW   OP   OEIEt  COLLEGE 

HOKOEAET    PELLOW    OP    TEINITT    COLLEGE 


|J  0 11  b  JO  n 
MACMILLAN    AND    CO. 

AKD    NEW    yOKK 

1886 
\AU  rif/hii  regerrid'\ 


1) 

7 


©ifortt 

PRINTED  BY  HORACE   HART,    PRINTER  TO  THE   UNIVERSITY 


PREFACE. 

These  are  the  Lectures  referred  to  in  the  last  paragraph 
of  the  Preface  to  the  course  on  the  "  Methods  of  Historical 
Study,"  lately  published.  I  have  added  to  them  the  second 
of  two  articles  which  appeared  in  the  Contemporary 
Review  for  1884.  The  former  of  them,  "Some  Neglected 
Periods  of  European  History,"  I  have  not  reprinted,  as  its 
substance  will  be  found  in  the  present  course.  The  second, 
"  Greek  Cities  under  Roman  Rule,"  as  dealing  somewhat 
more  in  detail  with  some  points  which  are  barely  glanced 
at  in  the  present  course,  seemed  to  make  a  fitting  Appendix 
to  it. 

I  find  that  the  same  thought  as  to  the  political  result 
of  modern  scientific  inventions  which  is  brought  out  at 
pp.  184,  185  of  these  Lectures  is  also  brought  out  in  the 
Lecture  at  Edinburgh,  reprinted  in  my  little  book  "Greater 
Greece  and  Greater  Britain,"  published  last  May.  This 
kind  of  thing  is  always  likely  to  happen  in  lectures  given 
in  difierent  places.  It  seemed  to  me  that  the  thought 
came  naturally  in  both  lectures,  and  that  either  would 
lose  something  by  its  being  struck  out.  As  for  those  who 
may  be  so  unlucky  as  to  read  both,  I  can  only  say  that 

a  3 


vi  PREFACE. 

a  thought  which  is  worth  suggesting  once  is  worth  sug- 
gesting twice.  At  least  I  have  often  found  it  so  in  the 
writings  of  others,  specially  in  those  of  Mr.  Grote. 

The  two  courses  of  Oxford  lectures  which  have  now 
been  printed  are  both  introductory.  In  this  present 
course  the  division  into  periods  which  is  attempted  is,  on 
the  face  of  it,  only  one  among  many  which  might  be  made. 
Another  man  might. divide  on  some  principle  altogether 
different;  I  might  myself  divide  on  some  other  principle 
in  another  course  of  lectures.  My  present  object  was  to 
set  forth  as  strongly  as  possible,  at  the  beginning  of  my 
teaching  here,  the  main  outlines  of  European  history,  as 
grouped  round  its  central  point,  the  Koman  power.  The 
main  periods  suggested  by  such  a  view  of  things  are  those 
which  concern  the  growth  and  the  dying-out  of  that  power 
— Europe  before  the  growth  of  Rome — Europe  with  Rome, 
in  one  shape  or  another,  as  her  centre — Europe  since  Rome 
has  practically  ceased  to  be.  When  this  main  outline,  a 
somewhat  formal  one,  has  once  been  established,  it  is  easy 
at  once  to  fiU  in  and  to  subdivide  in  an  endless  number  of 
ways  and  from  an  endless  number  of  points  of  view.  Thus 
I  have  at  present  little  to  do  with  the  political  develope- 
ment  of  particular  nations.  Of  some  branches  of  that 
subject  I  have  treated  at  some  length  in  other  shapes  ;  I 
may,  in  the  course  of  my  work  here,  have  to  treat  of  others. 
But  they  are  not  my  subject  now.  Nor  have  I  now  to 
deal  with  the  great  events  and  the  great  institutions  of 
Europe,  except  so  far  as  they  helped  to  work  out  the  one 
main  outline  which  I  have  tried  to  draw.  The  power  of 
the  Popes  may  be  looked  at  in  a  thousand  ways ;  it  con- 


PREFACE.  y'n 

cems  me  now  only  in  its  strictly  Roman  aspect,  as  one,  and 
the  greatest,  of  the  survivals  of  Roman  power.  The  great 
French  Revolution  again  may  be  looked  on  in  a  thousand 
ways.  It  concerns  me  now  as  having  led  to  the  sweeping 
away  of  the  last  relics  of  the  old  Roman  tradition,  and  as 
having  set  up  for  a  while  the  most  memorable  of  conscious 
imitations  of  the  Roman  power.  I  say  all  this,  that  no  one 
may  be  disappointed  if  he  fails  to  find  in  this  thin  volume 
even  a  summary  of  all  European  history,  much  less  a 
philosophical  discussion  of  all  European  history.  My 
business  now  is  simply  to  draw  an  outline,  ready  either 
for  myself  or  for  others  to  fill  up  in  various  ways. 

These  two  introductory  courses  make  up  the  result  of  my 
public  work  as  Professor  during  my  first  year  of  office, 
1884-5.  Besides  these,  there  was  the  minute  study  of 
Gregory  of  Tours  with  a  smaller  class,  followed  by  the  like 
study  of  Paul  the  Deacon.  In  my  second  year,  1885-6,  I 
have,  besides  this  study  of  texts,  been  engaged,  as  I  said  in 
my  former  Preface,  with  public  lectures  of  a  much  more 
minute  kind,  on  the  history  of  the  Teutonic  nations  in 
Gaul.  These  I  do  not  design  to  publish  as  lectures.  K  I 
live  long  enough,  I  trust  to  make  my  way  through  them  to 
an  older  subject  of  mine,  the  Teutonic  settlements  in  Britain. 
Neither  the  history  of  Gaul  nor  the  history  of  Britain  in 
the  fifth  century  a.d.  can  be  fully  understood — it  follows 
that  the  whole  later  history  of  the  two  lands  cannot  be 
fully  understood — without  comparing  it  with  the  history 
of  the  other  land.  In  dealing  with  Goths,  Burgundians, 
and  Franks,  the  comparison  and  contrast  with  Angles, 
Saxons,  and  Jutes,  if  it  sometimes  passes  out  of  the  imme* 


viii  PREFACE. 

diate  sight,  must  never  be  allowed  to  pass  out  of  the  mind's 
eye.  The  broad  light  of  the  history  of  Gaul  is  the  best 
comment  on  the  yet  more  instructive  darkness  of  the 
history  of  Britain. 

This  subject  brings  me  at  once  within  the  range  of  con- 
troversy. I  believe  that  the  doctrine  for  which  I  have 
struggled  so  long,  the  doctrine,  as  I  have  somewhere  put 
it  epigramatically,  that  we,  the  English  people,  are  our- 
selves and  not  somebody  else,  is  now  often  held  to  be  alto- 
gether set  aside.  Only  a  few  old-fashioned  people  like 
myself  are  thought  likely  to  maintain  it.  Yet,  whenever 
I  come  across  these  new  lights,  I  always  begin  to  doubt 
whether  those  who  kindle  them  have  ever  minutely  con- 
trasted the  circumstances  or  the  results  of  the  Teutonic 
settlements  in  Britain  with  those  of  the  better  known 
Teutonic  settlements  in  Gaul.  Now  this  is  the  very  root 
of  the  matter;  in  discoursing  of  the  phaenomena  of  Gaul, 
I  have  always  had  an  eye  to  the  phaenomena  of  Britain, 
and  I  trust  some  day,  if  I  am  ever  able  to  work  through 
my  materials,  to  set  forth  the  contrast  in  full.  To  this 
object  the  lectures  which  I  am  now  gradually  giving  will, 
I  hope,  serve ;  but  it  will  be  best  to  put  no  essential  part 
of  them  forth  to  the  world  till  I  can  deal  with  the  subject 
as  a  whole.  Till  then  I  will  simply  put  on  record,  for  the 
benefit  of  those  who  may  have  heard  statements  attributed 
to  me  which  they  have  certainly  not  read  in  my  writings, 
that  I  have  nowhere  said,  because  I  never  thought,  that 
every  one  Briton  was  necessarily  killed,  even  in  those 
parts  of  Britain  which  became  most  thoroughly  Teutonic. 
At  the  same  time,  I  think  that  every  one  who  really  reads 


PEE  FACE.  ix 

his  Gregory  and  his  Baida,  every  one  who  carefully 
compares  the  map  of  Gaul  with  the  map  of  Britain,  every 
one  who  stops  to  think  over  the  history  of  the  French 
and  the  English  tongues — and  the  history  of  the  Welsh 
tongue  too  will  not  do  him  any  harm — may  possibly 
come  to  the  conclusion  that  the  doctrine  that  Englishmen 
after  all  are  Englishmen  has  really  some  little  to  be  said 
for  it. 


1 6,  St.  Giles',  Oxford, 
October  i8,  1886. 


coisrTEisrTs 


LECrCTRE    I. 

PAGE 

Europe  before  the  Roman  Power      ....  i 


39 


LECTURE    II. 
Rome  the  Head  op  Europe 

LECTURE    III. 
Rome  and  the  New  Nations 1^2 

LECTURE    IV. 
The  Divided  Empire 104 

LECTURE    V. 
Survivals  of  Empire lo^ 

LECTURE    VI. 
The  "World  Romeless  .        .         .        .        .         ,         i^^ 

GREEK   CITIES   UNDER   ROMAN   RULE      .        .         209 
INDEX 241 


LECTUKE    I. 

EUROPE  BEFORE  THE  ROMAN  POWER. 

In  my  first  course  of  public  lectures  I  did  my  best 
to  speak  in  a  general  way  of  the  nature  of  historical 
study,  of  its  kindred  pursuits,  of  the  difficulties  by 
which  it  is  beset  and  of  the  most  hopeful  means  of 
overcoming  them.  I  spoke  of  the  nature  of  the  evi- 
dence with  which  we  have  to  deal  in  the  search  after 
historic  truth,  and  of  the  nature  of  the  witnesses  by 
whom  that  evidence  is  handed  down  to  us.  In  future 
courses  I  trust  to  apply  the  principles  which  I  then 
strove  to  lay  down  to  the  study  of  some  of  the  most 
memorable  periods  since  the  point  at  which,  if  at 
any  point,  the  special  business  of  this  chair  begins. 
That  we  have  ruled  to  be  the  point  at  which  the  Teu- 
tonic and  Slavonic  nations  first  began  to  play  a  chief 
part  in  the  great  drama  of  the  history  of  Western  man. 
In  the  present  term  I  ask  your  attention  to  a  course 
which  will  attempt  to  fill  a  place  intermediate  between 
these  two,  and  which  may  naturally  serve  as  a  link  be- 
tween them.  Now  that  we  have  laid  down  rules  for 
the  general  guidance  of  our  studies,  while  we  are  look- 
ing forward  to  a  more  minute  dealing  with  the  history 
of  some  specially  memorable  lands  and  times,  we  may, 
as  the  intermediate  stage,  do  our  best  to  part  ofi"  the 

B 


2  EUROPE  BEFORE  THE  ROMAN  POWER. 

history  of  man,  such  parts  of  it  at  least  as  concern  us, 
into  a  few  great  and  strongly-marked  periods.  In  my 
former  course,  while  taking  a  very  general  view  of  my 
whole  subject,  I  did  not  feel  myself  bound  to  keep 
witliin  any  artificial  limits,  whether  of  my  own  fixing 
or  of  any  other  man's.  When  speaking  of  evidence  and 
of  authorities,  I  drew  my  illustrations  as  freely  from 
centuries  before  our  sera  as  from  centuries  after  it. 
In  my  present  course  I  must  make  a  yet  more  direct 
and  open  raid  into  the  territories  of  my  ancient 
brother.  The  history  of  the  Teuton  and  the  Slave, 
since  the  davs  when  those  races  came  to  the  forefront 
of  the  nations  in  the  fourth,  fifth,  sixth,  and  seventh 
centuries  of  our  aera,  will  be  simply  unintelligible  if 
we  do  not  attempt  at  least  a  general  picture  of  that 
elder  world  into  which  they  made  their  way,  and  of 
the  course  of  events  which  gave  that  world  the  shape 
in  which  they  found  it.  But  my  sojourn  in  the  lands 
which  are  ruled  to  belong  to  another  will  not  be  a 
long  one  ;  before  a  ^evrjXaa-la  or  an  Alien  Act  can  be 
hurled  at  me,  I  shall  be  gone.  It  will  be  only  for 
the  space  of  about  a  thousand  years  that  I  need  tarry 
beyond  the  frontier  which  after  all  is  a  frontier  of 
my  own  choosing.  And  I  shall  always  welcome  my 
ancient  brother  on  a  return  visit  of  at  least  the  same 
length.  If  I  claim  to  walk  lightly  at  his  side  through 
the  ages  between  the  first  Olympiad  and  the  great 
Teutonic  invasion  of  Gaul,  I  bid  him  walk  more 
steadily,  more  abidingly,  at  my  side  through  the  ages 
between  the  Teutonic  invasion  of  Gaul  and  the  Otto- 
man conquest  of  Trebizond.     In  my  next  academic 


ROME  THE  CENTRE  OF  HISTORY.  3 

year  I  shall  not  need  to  ask  leave  to  play  truant 
even  for  so  short  a  space  as  I  have  spoken  of.  My 
main  subject  will  then  lie  fully  within  the  barrier. 
We  shall  cross  the  Ehine  and  the  Channel  with  the 
Vandal  and  the  Saxon  of  the  fifth  century.  And  if 
it  may  still  be  sometimes  needful  to  look  back  to 
Arminius  and  Ariovistus,  to  remember  that  men  of 
our  own  stock  fought  against  Gaius  Julius  and  Gains 
Marius,  we  can  in  return  again  call  on  our  elder 
brethren  to  look  forward  for  a  far  longer  space,  to 
assure  them  that  we  hold  them  thoroughly  at  home, 
not  only  in  the  Eome,  Western  or  Eastern,  of  any 
age,  but  in  the  Aquae  Grani  of  Frankish  Caesars  and 
in  the  Jerusalem  of  Lotharin2;ian  Kino;s. 

There  is  one  truth  which  in  one  sense  I  need  not 
set  forth  again — it  has  been  my  lot  to  set  it  forth 
so  often — but  which  I  must  none  the  less  set  forth 
almost  every  time  that  I  open  my  mouth  among  you, 
for  it  must  be  the  groundwork  of  my  whole  teaching, 
as  it  is  the  groundwork  of  all  sound  historic  teaching. 
This  is  the  truth  that  the  centre  of  our  studies,  the 
goal  of  our  thoughts,  the  point  to  which  all  paths 
lead  and  the  point  from  which  all  paths  start  again, 
is  to  be  found  in  Eome  and  her  abiding  power.  It 
is,  as  I  said  the  first  time  I  came  before  you,  one  of 
the  greatest  of  the  evils  which  spring  from  our  arti- 
ficial distinctions  where  there  are  no  distinctions  in 
nature,  from  our  formal  barriers  where  there  are  no 
barriers  in  fact,  that  this  greatest  and  simplest  of 
historic  truths  is  thereby  wholly  overshadowed.     He 

B  2 


4  EUROPE  BEFORE  THE  ROMAN  POWER. 

who  ends  his  work  in  476  and  he  who  begins  his 
work  in  476  can  neither  of  them  ever  understand  in 
its  fulness  the  abiding  Ufe  of  Rome,  neither  can  fully 
grasp  the  depth  and  power  of  that  truest  of  proverbial 
sayings  which  speaks  of  Rome  as  the  Eternal  City. 
And  none  but  those  who  have  thoroughly  grasped  the 
place  of  Rome  in  the  history  of  the  world  can  ever 
fully  understand  the  most  notable  historic  feature  of 
the  age  in  which  we  ourselves  live.  We  Hve  in  an 
age  from  which  Rome  has  passed  away,  an  age  at 
least  in  which  Rome  has  lost  her  headship.  And,  by 
one  of  the  wonderful  cycles  of  history,  the  Romeless 
world  from  which  Rome  has  passed  away  is  in  not  a 
few  points  a  return  to  the  elder  Romeless  world  on 
which  Rome  had  not  vet  risen.  In  both  alike  the 
European  world  lacks  a  centre ;  in  both  alike,  each 
city  or  nation  does  what  is  right  in  its  own  eyes, 
without  even  the  theory  of  a  controlling  power. 
The  fuller  carrying  out  of  this  analogy  I  keep  for 
the  last  lecture  of  the  present  course.  I  have  now 
only  to  divide  my  subject  into  three  great  and  marked 
periods.  We  have  Europe  before  the  headship  of 
Rome  arose.  We  have  Europe  under  the  headship 
of  Rome,  even  if  that  headship  was  sometimes  disputed 
and  divided.  Lastly,  we  have  Eiu:ope  since  the  head- 
ship of  Rome  has  altogether  passed  away.  It  is  the 
first  of  these  three  periods  of  which  I  wish  to  give 
such  a  sketch  to-day  as  may  at  least  put  it  in  its 
right  relation  to  the  periods  which  follow  it. 

But  there  is  one  aspect  in  which  all  those  periods 
form  one  whole  ;    there  is  one  tie  which  binds  all 


THE  ''ETERNAL  EASTERN  QUESTION."  5 

three  together ;  there  has  been  one  abiding  duty 
which  has  been  laid  on  Aryan  Europe  in  all  her 
phases,  before  Rome,  under  Rome,  and  after  Rome. 
One  "question"  has,  in  the  cant  of  the  day,  been 
"awaiting  its  solution,"  from  the  beginning  of  re- 
corded history,  and  from  a  time  long  before  recorded 
history.  That  is  the  question  on  which  a  shallow 
sneerer,  in  the  lucky  wisdom  of  his  blindness,  be- 
stowed the  epithet  of  "  Eternal."  Happily  indeed 
did  he  transfer  to  that  abiding  strife  the  epithet  of 
the  city  whose  sons  bore  so  long  and  mighty  a  part 
in  it.  It  is  the  "Eternal  Eastern  Question,"  the 
undying  question  between  the  civilization  of  the 
West  and  the  barbarism  of  the  East,  a  question 
which  has  here  and  there  taken  into  its  company 
such  side  issues  as  the  strife  between  freedom  and 
bondage,  between  Christendom  and  Islam,  but  which 
is  in  its  essence  simply  that  yet  older  strife  of  whose 
earlier  stages  Herodotus  so  well  grasped  the  meaning. 
It  is  a  strife  which  has,  as  far  as  we  can  look  back, 
put  on  the  familiar  shape  of  a  strife  between  East 
and  West.  And  in  that  abiding  strife,  that  Eternal 
Question,  the  men  of  the  Eternal  City,  Scipio  and 
Sulla,  Trajan  and  Julian,  played  their  part  well  indeed ; 
but  it  was  waged  before  them  and  after  them  as  far 
back  as  the  days  of  Agamemn6n  and  Achilleus,  as 
near  to  the  present  moment  as  the  days  of  Codring- 
ton  and  Skobelefif.  In  all  ages,  from  the  earliest  to 
the  latest,  before  the  championship  passed  to  Rome 
and  after  it  had  passed  away  from  Rome,  two  great 
and  abiding  duties  have  been  laid  on  Aryan  Europe 


6     EUROPE  BEFORE  THE  ROMAN  POWER. 

and  on  the  several  powers  of  Aryan  Europe.  They 
have  been  called  on  to  develope  the  common  institu- 
tions of  the  great  family  within  its  own  borders ; 
and  they  have  been  called  on  to  defend  those  borders 
and  those  institutions  against  the  inroads  of  the  bar- 
barian from  without. 

When  our  historic  scene  first  opens,  those  twofold 
duties  were  laid  on  a  small  branch  of  the  European 
family,  and  that  the  branch  that  dwelled  nearest  to 
the  lands  of  the  enemy.     It  is  not  without  a  cause 
that   those  lands  of  Europe   which  he   nearest   to 
Asia — we   might   almost   add,  those  lands  of  Asia 
which  are  historically  part  of  Europe — are  in  their 
physical  construction  the  most  European  of  Euro- 
pean  lands.     Europe   is   the   continent   of  islands, 
peninsulas,  and  inland  seas ;    the   lauds  round  the 
^gaean,  its  Asiatic  as  well  as  its  European  shore, 
form  more  thoroughly  a  world  of  islands,  peninsulas, 
and  inland  seas  than  any  other  part  of  Europe  or  of 
the  world.     The  Greek  land  was  made  for  its  people, 
and  the  Greek  people  for  their  land.    I  remember  well 
the  saying  of  one  in  this  place  with  whom  geographical 
insight  is  an  instinct,  that  neither  the  Greeks  in  any 
other  land  nor  any  other  people  in  Greece  could  have 
been  what  the  Greeks  in  Greece  actually  were.     The 
mission  of  the  Greek  race  was  to  be  the  teachers,  the 
lights,  the  beacons,  of  mankind,  but  not  their  rulers. 
They  were  to  show  what  man  could  be,  in  a  narrow 
space  and  in  a  short  space  of  time ;  they  were  to 
show  every  faculty  developed  to  its  highest  point,  to 
give  models  of  every  form  of  poUtical  constitution,  of 


THE  GREEKS  AND  THEIR  LAND.  7 

every  form  of  intellectual  life,  to  bring  to  perfection 
among  themselves  and  to  hand  on  to  all  future  ages 
that  most  perfect  form  of  human  speech,  a  living 
knowledge  of  which  is  still  the  one  truest  test  of  the 
highest  culture.  Greece  was  given  to  be  the  mistress 
of  the  world  in  the  sense  of  being  the  world's  highest 
intellectual  teacher;  it  was  not  hers  to  be  the 
mistress  of  the  world  in  the  sense  in  which  that 
calling  fell  to  another  of  the  great  peninsulas  of 
southern  Europe.  Deep  and  abiding  as  has  been  the 
influence  of  old  Greece  on  every  later  age,  her  in- 
fluence has  been  almost  wholly  indirect ;  it  has  been 
an  influence  of  example,  of  precept,  of  warning  ;  it 
has  not  been  an  influence  of  direct  cause  and  effect. 
In  one  sense  the  world  could  never  have  been  what 
it  now  is  if  the  men  of  old  Hellas  had  not  lived  and 
fought  and  thought  and  sung.  But  it  is  in  another 
sense  from  that  in  which  we  say  that  the  world  could 
not  be  what  it  now  is  if  the  men  of  old  Kome  had 
not  lived  and  fought,  and — we  will  not  say  thought 
and  sung,  but  ruled  and  judged  the  nations.  It  is 
indeed  no  small  thought,  it  is  one  of  the  most 
quickening  and  ennobling  of  thoughts,  that  those 
men  of  Hellas  were  our  kinsfolk,  men  of  the  same 
great  family  as  ourselves,  men  whose  institutions  and 
whose  speech  are  simply  other  and  older  forms  of 
the  speech  and  institutions  of  our  own  folk.  The 
ancient  lore  alike  of  Greece  and  of  England  puts  on 
a  keener  charm  when  M'^e  see  in  the  Agore  before 
Ilios  the  same  gathering  under  well  nigh  the  same 
forms  as  we  see  in  the  Marzfeld  beneath  the  walls  of 


8  EUROPE  BEFORE  THE  ROMAN  POWER. 

Rheims  and  in  the  Gemot  beneath  the  walls  of 
London.  We  seem  more  at  home  alike  in  either 
age  when  we  see  the  eraipoi,  the  Oepdirovre^,  that 
fought  around  Achilleus  rise  again  in  the  true 
gesi^as,  the  faithful  '^egnas,  of  our  own  folk,  in 
Lilla  who  gave  his  life  for  Eadwine  and  in  the  men 
who  died,  thegn-like,  their  lord  hard  by,  around  the 
corpse  of  Brihtnoth  at  Maldon.  Still  all  this  is  but 
likeness,  example,  analogy,  derivation  from  a  common 
source  ;  we  are  dealing,  not  with  forefathers  but 
with  elder  brethren.  The  laws  of  Lykourgos  and 
Solon  have  passed  away;  it  is  the  laws  of  Servius 
and  Justinian  that  stiU  abide.  The  empire  of  Myk^nd, 
the  democracy  of  Athens,  the  league  of  Achaia,  are 
all  things  of  the  past.  If  the  Empire  of  Eome  is  no 
longer  a  thing  of  the  present,  if  it  has  passed  away, 
if  it  is  dead  and  buried,  it  is  well  to  remember  that 
there  are  still  men  living  who  have  seen  its  funeral. 
I  am  myself  not  old  enough  to  have  seen  its  funeral ; 
but  I  have  before  now  seen  some  look  amazed  when 
I  told  them  that  I  had  lived  on  the  earth  for  twelve 
years  along  with  a  man  who  had  once  been  Emperor 
of  the  Eomans. 

The  days  before  the  Roman  power  may  be  looked 
on  as  in  some  sort  the  preface  to  a  volume  the  last 
page  of  which  is  not  written,  as  the  porch  of  a  build- 
ing which  still  stands  and  which  architects  to  come 
may  still  add  to  or  take  from.  It  is  with  Rome  that 
the  chapters  of  the  book  itself  begia ;  it  is  Rome  that 
reared  the  first  still  inhabited  chambers  of  the  house. 


INFLUENCE  OF  GREECE.  9 

Or  we  may  rather  say  that  the  tale  of  the  days 
before  Eome  is  a  summary,  short  and  brilliant,  of  all 
that  man  has  done  or  can  do.  The  tale  of  Hellas 
shows  lis  a  glorified  ideal  of  human  powers,  held  up 
to  the  world  for  a  moment  to  show  what  man  can 
be,  but  to  show  us  also  that  such  he  cannot  be  for 
long.  And  herein  is  the  highest  glory  of  Greece  ; 
herein  is  the  highest  value  of  the  tongue  and  history 
of  Greece  as  supplying  the  truest  and  noblest  teach- 
ing for  the  mind  of  man.  In  no  other  study  are  we 
so  truly  seeking  knowledge  simply  to  raise  and 
school  the  mind  ;  in  none  do  we  so  sharply  draw  the 
still  abiding,  line  between  those  w^ho  have  gone 
through  the  refining  furnace  of  those  immortal 
studies  and  the  barbarians — sometimes  the  self-con- 
demned barbarians — -who  stand  without.  When  we 
study  the  tongue,  the  laws,  the  history,  of  our  own 
people,  of  any  people  of  our  immediate  kindred,  of 
that  people  who,  whether  conquering  or  conquered, 
were  still  the  masters  of  us  all,  we  are  as  it  were 
engaged  in  our  own  work,  we  are  busy  with  the  toil 
of  our  own  daily  life ;  it  is  still  something  of  a 
business,  something  of  a  calling.  In  our  Hellenic 
studies  we  stand  on  a  loftier  height,  we  breathe  a 
purer  air,  even  as  the  peak  of  Olympos  overtops  the 
height  of  Alba.  We  master  the  tongue  of  Latium, 
because  it  is  still  the  tongue  of  no  small  part  of  the 
business  of  practical  life,  because  it  meets  us  at 
every  turn  as  an  essential  part  of  our  own  law,  our 
own  history,  our  very  daily  being.  We  master  the 
tongue  of  Hellas  as  being   in   itself  the   first  and 


10  EUROPE  BEFORE  TEE  ROMAN  POWER. 

noblest  form  of  the  common  speech,  as  the  tongue 
which,  in  its  native  and  unborrowed  strength, 
brought  forth  the  greatest  master-pieces  of  every 
form  of  lettered  utterance,  those  master-pieces  which 
none  can  know  save  those  who  can  follow  the  very 
words  of  the  poet,  the  orator,  the  philosopher 
himself,  and  who  are  not  at  the  mercy  of  some  blind 
guide  who  vainly  strives  to  reproduce  those  living 
words  in  ruder  tongues.  After  long  years  of  familiar 
knowledge,  we  need  hardly  sigh  for  the  days  when 
those  deathless  works  were  fresh  to  us.  The  tale  of 
Ilios  and  Ithake,  the  oldest  inheritance  of  the 
common  folk,  the  oldest  picture  of  the  common 
household,  is  ever  living,  ever  fresh.  We  can  but 
pity  the  doom  of  those  who,  by  their  own  act  or  by 
the  act  of  others,  are  shut  out  from  it. 

The  beginnings  then  of  European  history,  more 
strictly  perhaps  the  beginnings  of  the  brilliant  pro- 
logue to  unbroken  European  history,  will  be  found 
in  the  borderlands  of  Europe  and  Asia,  among  the 
islands  and  peninsulas  of  the  ^gsean  sea.  I  am 
speaking  now  of  history  in  the  narrower  sense,  of 
the  continuous  political  history  of  man.  With  the 
strangers  who  lay  without  the  great  brotherhood, 
ancient  as  may  have  been  their  power,  mighty  as 
may  have  been  their  works,  we  have  to  deal  only 
when  they  come  across  the  men  of  our  own  house- 
hold. We  begin  in  short  with  the  first  beginnings 
of  the  recorded  history  of  Greece,  with  the  first 
Olympiad  ag.  a  conventional  date,  but  not  forgetting 


BEGINNINGS  OF  GREEK  HISTORY.  11 

times  before  the  first  Olympiad  so  far  as  our  earliest 
pictures  carry  us  back  to  yet  older  times.  I  cleave 
to  the  date  which  I  proposed  in  my  Inaugural 
Lecture.  I  have  to  be  sure  come  across  a  singular 
objection  from  a  critic  in  this  place.  I  have  been  told 
that,  by  beginning  with  the  first  Olympiad,  I  leave 
out  all  Mahometan  history.  There  are  then,  one 
must  think,  those  who  believe  that  all  Mahometan 
history  took  place  before  the  first  Olympiad.  "  Felices 
errore  suo."  I  can  only  heartily  wish  that  it  were  so, 
and  that  the  Ottoman  was  a  thing  as  dead  and  gone 
as  the  Hittite.  I  fear  that,  beginning  with  776  B.C., 
nay  even  if  we  begin  with  the  mystic  year  476  a.d., 
we  shall  still  have  all  Mahometan  history  in  front 
of  us,  and  that  the  needs  of  our  tale  will  drive  us  to 
take  not  a  few  glimpses  at  that  side  of  the  world. 
From  the  very  beginning  we  have  to  do  with  powers 
which  filled  the  same  place  in  the  world  which  the 
Mahometan  powers  filled  in  after  ages,  the  powers 
against  which  our  eldest  brethren  had  to  wage  the 
earlier  stages  of  the  strife  which  still  is  waging. 
With  ingenious  speculations  as  to  the  earliest  origin, 
the  earliest  settlements,  the  earliest  forms  of  speech, 
of  the  Hellenic  folk,  I  am  not,  in  such  a  summary  as 
this,  called  on  to  concern  myself.  I  gladly  leave 
them  to  my  ancient  brother.  I  have  to  deal  with  the 
Greek  when  he  appears  on  the  stage  of  the  world 
as  the  first  champion  of  the  great  cause  and  as 
waging  a  strife  against  worthy  rivals.  One  people 
alone  in  the  barbarian  world  have  even  the  shadow 
of  a  right  to  be  placed  side  by  side,  to  be  dealt  with 


12  EUROPE  BEFORE  THE  ROMAN  POWER. 

as  ebenhiirtig,  with  the  men  of  Hellas.  In  the  men 
of  Canaan  the  men  of  Hellas  had  to  acknowledofe 
rivals  who  were  largely  forerunners  and  in  some  sort 
masters.  Greece  had  ships,  colonies,  and  commerce  ; 
but  Phoenicia  had  ships,  colonies,  and  commerce  in 
days  earlier  still.  How  high  in  all  the  material  arts 
the  Phoenician  stood  above  the  earliest  Greek  we  see 
in  our  earliest  picture  of  Hellenic  life.  Not  to  speak 
of  lesser  gifts,  we  all  bear  in  our  minds  that  it  was 
from  the  Phoenician  that  Hellas  must  first  have  learned 
to  carve  the  abiding  records  of  man's  thought  on 
the  stone,  on  the  brazen  or  wooden  tablet,  on  the 
leaves  of  Egypt  and  on  the  skins  of  Pergamon.  The 
political  life  of  Greece  was  her  own  ;  that  assuredly 
was  no  borrowed  gift  from  Tyre  or  Sidon ;  yet  Tyre 
and  Sidon  and  that  mightier  Carthage  whose  institu- 
tions Aristotle  studied  had  a  political  life  of  their 
own  which  brought  them  nearer  to  the  Hellenic  level 
than  any  other  people  beyond  the  Aryan  fold.  Only, 
if  we  must  admit  that  the  men  of  Canaan  were  on 
some  points  the  teachers  of  the  men  of  Hellas,  yet  it 
was  the  men  of  Hellas  and  not  the  men  of  Canaan  to 
whom  destiny  had  given  the  call  to  be  the  teachers 
of  the  world.  It  is  a  strange  destiny  by  which  the 
people  who  gave  Greece  the  art  of  writing  should 
have  left  to  us  no  writings  to  hand  down  to  us  the 
thoughts  and  deeds  of  a  world  of  their  own  that  has 
passed  away.  Strange  destiny  that,  while  so  large 
a  part  of  the  acts  of  the  Phoenician  are  recorded  by 
Greek  and  Roman  enemies,  while  the  tongue  of  the 
Phoenician  may  be  said  still  to  hve  for  us  in  the 


THE  GREEKS  AND  THEIR  NEIGHBOURS.         13 

speech  of  the  kindred  Hebrew,  yet  the  direct 
memorials  of  so  great  a  people  should  not  go  beyond 
a  few  coins,  a  few  inscriptions,  a  few  ruins  of  cities 
which  once  held  their  place  among  the  mightiest  of 
the  earth. 

Our  scene  then  opens  with  the  picture  of  the  Greek 
while  still  shut  up  in  his  own  special  land  of  islands 
and  peninsulas.  We  ask  not  for  our  purposes  how 
and  whence  he  came  thither ;  we  ask  not  the  exact 
measure  of  his  kindred  in  blood  and  speech  to  the 
other  nations  around  him.  It  is  enough  for  us  that 
the  Greek  is  not  wholly  isolated,  that  he  is  not 
merely  one  gf  the  great  Aryan  family,  but  that  he 
is  the  foremost  among  a  group  of  nations  who  are 
bound  to  him  by  some  closer  tie  than  that  which 
binds  together  all  the  branches  of  the  great  Aryan 
family.  The  exact  degree  of  kindred  between  Greeks 
and  Thracians  or  Phrygians  we  may  leave  to  other 
inquirers ;  it  is  enough  for  us  that  there  was  the 
common  Aryan  kindred,  and  seemingly  something 
more.  But  it  is  one  of  the  leading  facts  of  history 
that  Greece  had  to  deal  on  her  immediate  northern 
frontier,  on  the  opposite  coasts  of  Asia,  on  the 
opposite  coasts  of  Italy  and  Sicily,  with  nations 
which,  for  historical  purposes  at  least,  were  nearer 
stni.  Those  nations  had,  to  say  the  least,  a  powder  of 
adopting  Greek  ways,  a  power  of  becoming  Greeks 
by  adoption  if  not  by  birth.  The  boundary  line 
between  the  Greek  and  the  Epeirot,  faint  in  the 
earliest  days  of  Greece,  seems  for  some  ages  to  be 
drawn  sharper  and  sharper.     Then  the  tide  turns ; 


14  EUROPE  BEFORE  THE  R02IAN  POWER, 

suddenly  the  Epeirots,  the  people  of  the  oldest 
Hellas,  the  guardians  of  the  oldest  of  Hellenic 
oracles,  stand  forth  again  in  their  elder  character. 
Molottian  Pyrrhos  wages  Western  wars  as  a  Hellenic 
champion  and  the  kingdom  of  Pyrrhos  settles  down 
at  last  into  a  well-ordered  Greek  confederation. 

So  it  is  in  Macedonia ;  so  it  is  in  Sicily;  so  it  is  in 
the  Greater  Hellas  on  Italian  soil.  All  these  lands, 
and  other  lands  beside,  become,  for  a  longer  or  shorter 
time,  part  of  the  immediate  Greek  world,  no  less 
than  Attica  or  Peloponn^sos.  Greek  colonization 
and  Macedonian  conquest  had,  each  in  its  turn,  a 
share  in  the  work,  and  both  were  in  many  lands  not 
a  little  helped  by  real,  if  unconscious,  kindred  on  the 
part  of  those  whom  colonists  and  conquerors  found 
already  in  possession.  Every  colony,  eveiy  conquest, 
not  only  won  new  lands  for  the  Greek  settlers  them- 
selves, but  increased  the  Greek  nation  in  its  wider 
sense  by  multitudes  who  became  Greek  by  adoption, 
and  in  whose  case  the  work  of  adoption  was  made 
more  easy  by  the  existence  of  earlier  ties  of  which 
neither  side  had  thought.  As  time  goes  on,  as  we 
reach  the  days  when  Greek  influences  were  most 
widely  spread  over  the  Mediterranean  lands,  we  may 
easily  trace  out  zones  within  zones,  marking  out  the 
different  stages  by  which  the  Greek  element  grows 
fainter  and  fainter.  First  there  is  the  centre  of 
all,  the  original  Hellas  itself  Then  there  are  the 
genuine  colonies  of  old  Hellas,  detached  fragments 
of  Hellenic  soil  translated  to  foreign  coasts.  Then 
there  are  the  kindred  lands  whose  people  were  fully 


FORMS  OF  GREEK  INFLUENCE.  15 

adopted  into  the  Hellenic  fold.  Beyond  tliem  again 
lie  the  kingdoms  ruled  bv  Macedonian  princes,  where 
a  few  great  cities  which  we  must  call  Greek  by 
the  law  of  adoption  are  planted  in  lands  which 
have  received  at  the  outside  only  the  faintest  varnish 
of  Hellenic  culture.  Lastly,  beyond  these  again,  there 
are  the  barbarian  lands  whose  princes,  like  barbarian 
princes  in  our  own  day,  made  a  show  of  adopting 
Greek  speech  and  Greek  culture,  but  where  the  foreign 
tastes  of  the  princes  had  no  real  effect  on  their 
kingdoms,  and  which  we  cannot  look  on  as  forming 
part  of  the  Greek  world  in  the  laxest  sense.  Such 
was  Parthia ;  such  was  Pontes.  Is  it  too  much  to 
add  to  the  barbarian  kingdoms  of  the  East  the 
mighty  commonwealth  of  the  West  which  had  once 
been' in  Greek  eyes  no  less  barbarian  1  It  is  no  small 
part  of  our  oecumenical  story  to  mark  how  far  Rome 
became  Greek  and  how  far  Rome  refused  to  become 
Greek.  The  facts  belong  to  a  later  time ;  yet  in 
some  sort  they  form  part  of  our  present  survey. 
The  Rome  which  brought  the  Greek  lands  step  by 
step,  first  under  Roman  influence,  then  under  Roman 
dominion,  was  a  Rome  which  had  already  come 
within  the  magic  circle  of  Hellenic  teaching ;  while 
keeping  the  essential  essence  of  the  national  life 
untouched,  while  remaining  truly  Roman  in  every 
political  institution,  in  every  detail  of  law  and 
government,  she  became  Greek  for  every  purpose  of 
refined  and  intellectual  life.  Nay,  Rome  became, 
like  Macedonia,  a  disciple  that  gathered  in  fresh 
disciples.     Wherever   Rome's   political   life   spread, 


16  EUROPE  BEFORE  THE  ROMAN  POWER. 

some  measure,  greater  or  less,  of  Gieek  intellectual 
life  spread  with  it. 

The  history  of  Europe  before  the  Eoman  power  is 
in  truth  the  history  of  the  stages  by  which  the  Greek 
mind  made  its  way  to  this  general  supremacy  over 
the  civilized  world,  and  in  some  sort  beyond  the 
bounds  of  the  civilized  world.  Within  the  range 
of  this  supremacy  of  the  Greek  mind  comes  the 
narrower  range  of  the  political  supremacy  of  powers 
which  were  either  Greek  from  the  beginning  or  which 
had  become  Greek  by  adoption.  The  supremacy  of 
the  Greek  mind  has  never  ceased,  and  is  still  abiding. 
Greek  intellectual  dominion  has  formed  one  side  of  the 
whole  modern  world  ;  the  advance  of  Greek  political 
power  has  wrought  the  lesser,  but  by  no  means  unim- 
portant, work  of  forming  one  of  the  nations  of  the  modern 
world.  The  modern  Greek  nation,  meaning  thereby 
something  more  than  the  inhabitants  either  of  the 
existing  Greek  kingdom  or  of  the  continuous  HeUas 
of  old  times,  is  the  firuit  of  old  Greek  colonization, 
followed  up  by  Macedonian  conquest.  I  said  years 
ago  that  Alexander  was  the  founder  of  the  modern 
Greek  nation,  and  I  say  so  still.  This  saying  may 
seem  to  shut  out  the  work  of  earlier  Greek  coloniza- 
tion, above  all  in  those  lands  of  Sicily  and  southern 
Italy  which  we  have  spoken  of  as  having  been 
admitted  by  adoption  within  the  immediate  Greek 
world.  The  truth  is  that  Greek  colonization  has 
nowhere  been  fully  lasting,  it  has  nowhere  left  its 
abiding  traces  on  the  modern  world,  except  where 
Macedonian  conquest  came  to  strengthen  it.     This 


BOUNDARIES  OF  GREEK  INFLUENCE.  17 

enables  us  to  fix  a  boundary  for  the  lands  which 
were  permanently  admitted  within  the  immediate 
Greek  world.  That  boundary  is  the  Hadriatic. 
West  of  the  Hadriatic  Greek  life  has  died  out.  The 
outlying  Greek  colonies  in  Gaul  and  Spain,  deep 
as  was  their  influence  on  Gaul,  had  ceased  to  be 
Greek  before  the  great  nations  of  modern  Europe 
came  into  being.  Even  southern  Italy  and  Sicily, 
where  Greek  life  was  strengthened  by  their  long 
connexion  with  the  Greek  Rome  on  the  Bosporos, 
have  ceased  to  be  Greek  for  some  ages.  The  lands 
in  which  a  series  of  invaders  of  whom  Pyrrhos  of 
Molottis  was  the  last  and  greatest  strove  in  vain 
to  set  up  a  Western  Greek  dominion,  have  fallen 
away  from  the  Greek  world.  But  the  work  which 
Alexander  of  Epeiros  failed  to  do  in  the  West  was 
largely  done  by  his  more  famous  nephew  and  name- 
sake in  the  East.  If  a  great  part  of  Alexander's 
conquests  were  but  for  a  short  time,  another  great 
part  of  them  was  abiding.  The  work  of  Alex- 
ander and  Seleukos  fixed  a  line  fluctuating  between 
the  Euphrates  and  the  Tigris,  as  a  long  abiding 
boundary  of  European  dominion.  It  fixed  Tauros,  the 
boundary  of  Alexander's  first  Asiatic  conquests,  as  a 
far  more  abiding  boundary  of  European  life.  I  have 
had  to  point  out  in  two  hemispheres,  but  I  must 
point  out  again,  how  very  nearly  the  actual  range  of 
the  modern  Greek  nation  agrees  with  the  range  of  old 
Greek  colonization  east  of  Hadria.  It  has  advanced 
at  some  points  and  it  has  gone  back  at  others  ; 
but  its  general  extent  is  wonderfully  the  same.     It  is 


18  EUROPE  BEFORE  THE  ROMAN  POWER. 

an  extent  which  in  both  ages  has  been  fixed  by  the 
genius  of  the  people.  Nowhere  out  of  the  old  con- 
tinuous Hellas  does  the  Greek  people,  none  the  less 
Greek  because  largely  Greek  by  adoption,  spread 
from  sea  to  sea.  Throughout  a  large  part  of  eastern 
Europe  and  western  Asia  the  Greek  is  the  represen- 
tative of  European  and  civilized  life  on  the  whole 
sea-coast.  The  world  of  peninsulas  and  islands  is  the 
world  of  the  Greek  now,  exactly  as  it  was  in  the 
days  of  the  Homeric  Catalogue. 

It  is,  as  we  held  in  our  former  course,  with  that 
Catalogue,  the  first  written  record  of  European  poHtics, 
that  our  survey  of  Europe  before  the  Eoman  Power 
must  open.  With  all  who  can  take  a  general  grasp 
of  history  and  who  understand  the  nature  of  evidence, 
the  Domesday  of  the  Empire  of  Myk^n^,  puzzling 
to  the  mere  porer  over  two  or  three  arbitrarily 
chosen  centuries,  commands  full  belief.  We  ruled  it 
in  our  former  inquiry  to  be  the  highest  example  of 
a  general  rule,  "  Credo  quia  impossibile."  In  the 
Catalogue  we  see  the  people  of  mauy  islands  and  of 
all  Argos,  grouped  under  the  Bretwalda  of  Hellas, 
already  engaged  in  a  stage,  and  not  the  earliest  stage, 
of  the  Eternal  Question.  Herodotus,  who  better  knew 
the  meaning  of  the  world's  history  than  the  diplo- 
matists of  modem  days,  could  point,  in  a  mythical 
shape  indeed,  to  stages  earlier  still.  Whether  there 
ever  was  a  personal  Agamemnon  and  a  personal  Odys- 
seus matters  but  little  ;  it  matters  far  more  that  the 
keen  eye  of  Alfred,  who  knew  the  relation  of  an  over- 
lord and  his  vassal  princes,  could  see  the  relation 


FIRST  GLIMPSES  OF  GREECE.  la 

between  Ulixes  with  his  two  kingdoms  and  the  Casere 
Agamemn6n  of  whom  he  held  them.     That  Casere, 
kingliest  among  the  kingly,  (Baa-iXevrepos  in  the  throng 
of  ^aaiXrjes,  is  already  doing  the  work  of  a  Trajan  or  a 
Frederick ;  he  is  fighting  for  Europe  on  the  shores  of 
Asia.     The  work  of  Greek  colonization  has  begun  ; 
Crete,  to  be  won  again  ages  after  from  the  Saracen,  is 
already  won  from  the  Phoenician;  Ehodes  is  already 
admitted  to  Hellenic  fellowship,  to  see  in  after  days 
the  might  of  Antigonos  and  the  might  of  Mahomet 
shattered  beneath  her  walls.     The  southern  coast  of 
Asia  is  still  untouched  ;  Mildtos  is  a  barbarian  city; 
but  Achilleus  has  won  Lesbos  as  his  own  prize,  and 
on  the  mainland  the  work  is  doing  which  was  to 
make  the  coasts  of  the  Hellespont  and  the  Propontis 
a  foremost  outpost  of  Greece  and  Europe,  the  land 
which  was  to  witness  the  first  exploits  of  the  first 
crusaders  and  to  behold  the  Eastern  Eome  rise  to  a 
fresh  life  under  the  firm  rule  of  the  Emperors  of 
Nikaia.      Deem  we  as  we  will  as  to  minuter  details, 
as  we  have  in  the  Homeric  poems  our  first  ghmpse 
of  Aryan  society  in  peace  and  war,  so  we  have  in  them 
our  first  record,  if  only  in  a  poetic  form,  of  one  stage 
of  the   great   strife   which   changed   the   barbarian 
peninsula  of  Asia  into  that  solid  home  of  Grecian 
speech   and   Koman   law   which   for   ages   held   up 
against  the   ceaseless    inroads  of   the  Arabian  con- 
querors.    To  the  west,  to  the  north,  our  range  of 
sight  is  narrower.     No  colonist  from  Argos  and  its 
islands  has  made  his  way  to  Italy  or  Sicily ;  Akar- 
nania  is  still  part  of  the  vague  Mainland,  the  still 

C  2 


20         EUROPE  BEFORE  THE  ROMAN  POWER. 

undefined  Ej^eiros  ;  Korkjra  is  still  a  land  of  fable  on 
which  no  settler  from  Corinth  has  set  foot.  But  there 
are  signs  which  already  point  to  the  kindred  of  the 
nations  on  both  sides  of  the  Ionian  sea.  The  Sikel 
dwells  on  both  coasts ;  even  of  the  more  mysterious 
Sikan  we  get  a  passing  glimpse.  The  northern  coast 
of  the  JEgjBan  is  known ;  but  that  coast  is  not  yet 
Hellenic ;  it  significantly  sends  its  warriors  to  fight 
on  the  Asiatic  side.  Further  to  the  north,  further  to 
the  west,  all  is  wonder  and  mystery;  we  may  as  well 
ask  whether  the  poet  had  any  conception  of  the  site 
of  London  as  whether  he  had  any  conception  of  the 
site  of  Kome.  The  eyes  of  infant  Greece  are  still 
fixed  on  the  East ;  vague  tidings  had  reached  her  of 
the  wonders  of  the  land  by  the  river  JEgypt ;  the 
men  of  Sidon  were  her  visitors,  her  traffickers,  in  some 
sort  her  teachers.  But  the  wary  sons  of  Canaan  were 
too  wise  to  tell  aU  they  knew  of  Western  lands  and 
Western  seas.  The  gold  of  Tartessos  was  as  yet  for 
them  only;  for  them  only  was  the  precious  know- 
ledge that  the  pillars  of  Hdraklds — if  Greece  had  as 
yet  heard  their  name — opened  into  no  stream  of 
Ocean  parting  the  lands  of  the  living  and  the  dead, 
but  into  the  boundless  waters  over  which  it  was  as 
yet  for  themselves  alone  to  spread  their  sails. 

Let  us  take  another  glance  at  the  Mediterranean 
world  at  a  later  time,  a  time  when  our  historic 
evidence  is  still  meagre  and  scattered,  but  when  we 
have  begun  to  leave  mere  legend  behind  us.  It  is 
one  of  the  gains  or  losses  of  the  wider  study  of 
history  that  it  often  teaches  us  to  look  at  this  and 


THE  FIFTH  CENTUR Y  B.C.  2 f 

that  period  with  different  eyes  from  those  with  which 
we  naturally  look  at  them  when  we  are  engaged  only 
in  the  narrower  study  of  special  times  and  places. 
I  well  remember  learning,  and  I  well  remember  being 
startled  as  I  learned,  from  the  teaching  of  Mr.  Finlay, 
that  the  age  which  we  commonly  look  on  as  the 
most  glorious  in  Grecian  history,  the  fifth  century 
before  Christ,  was  in  truth  an  age  of  Greek  decline. 
The  truth  is  that  it  was  the  greatest  age  in  the 
history  of  Athens,  and  a  crowd  of  causes  lead  us  at 
every  moment  to  mistake  the  history  of  Athens  for 
the  history  of  Greece.  What  we  sometimes  fail  to 
see  Herodotus  saw  clearly.  He  saw  that  in  the 
general  history  of  the  world  the  age  of  the  Persian 
wars  was,  for  the  Greek  people  as  a  whole,  the 
scattered  Greek  people  all  over  the  world,  an  age 
of  decline.  The  fact  that  there  was  a  Persian  war, 
a  Persian  war  waged  in  Greece,  is  enough  to  prove 
the  saying.  That  fact  of  itself  shows  that  that  pro- 
cess had  already  begun  which  is  still  not  ended,  the 
long  and  gloomy  work  of  which  Finlay  steeled  him- 
self to  write  the  story,  the  History  of  Greece  under 
Foreign  Domination.  It  is  enough  to  prove  Finlay 's 
point  that  Mildtos  had  learned  to  groan,  as  thrice- 
betrayed  Joannina  groans  still,  beneath  the  yoke  of 
the  barbarian.  The  periods  when  Greek  influences 
had  most  sway  over  the  whole  world  are  two,  one 
earlier,  one  later,  than  the  more  brilliant  times  of 
our  usual  studies.  The  earlier  is  the  greater ;  for  it 
is  the  time  when  Hellas  grew  and  spread  and  made 
wide   her  borders   among  the  nations,   by  her  own 


22         EUROPE  BEFORE  TUE  ROMAN  POWER. 

unaided  strength,  the  time  when  Hellenic  coloniza- 
tion carried  everywhere,  not  only  Hellenic  speech  and 
Hellenic  arts,  but  the  higher  boon  of  free  Hellenic 
political  life.      In  the  later  period  Hellenic  speech 
and  Hellenic  arts  are  spread  more  widely  than  they 
had  ever  been  spread  before ;  but  Hellenic  political 
life  is  no  longer  carried  with  them.     The  external 
might  of  Greece  is  wielded  for  her  by  the  kings  of 
the  adopted  lands ;  we  have  passed  from  Hellenic 
colonization  to  Macedonian  conquest.     In  neither  of 
those  periods  was  the  most  vigorous  Greek  life  to 
be  found  in  old  Greece  itself;   the  most  brilHant  re- 
corded period  of  old  Greece  is  the  period  between 
the  two,  the  period  of  our  most  usual  Greek  studies. 
But   it  was   the   most  brilliant  because  the  outer 
bounds  of  Hellas  had  fallen  back  before  victorious 
barbarians,  and  because  old  Greece  rose  up  in  a  re- 
newed strength  to  avenge  the  wrongs  of  her  colonies 
and  to  ward  off  the  like  bondage  from  herself     The 
Greece  of  the  fifth  century  before  Christ  is  like  the 
Bome  of  the  fourth  century  after  Christ.     Its  war- 
fare is  essentially  defensive ;   it  seldom  gains  new 
groimd ;  it  has  much  ado  to  defend  old  ground.     It 
gains  victories ;  it  wins  territories  ;  but  the  victories 
are  gained  over  threatening  invaders,  the  territories 
that  are  won  are  won  back  from  the  grasp  of  those 
invaders.    The  work  of  Kimon,  the  work  of  Agesilaos, 
answers  rather  to  the  work  of  Galerius  and  Valen- 
tinian  than  to  the  work  of  those  conquerors  of  realms 
'  wholly  new  who  made  Sicily  a  Greek   and  Gaul  a 
Boman  land. 


WIDEST  EXTENT  OF  HELLAS.  23 

It  is  hard  to  fix  on  the  exact  moment  when  free 
and  independent  Hellas — for  remember  that  where- 
ever  Hellenes  dwell  there  is  Hellas — had  spread 
itself  most  widely  over  the  Mediterranean  coasts. 
For  boundaries  fluctuate,  and  Hellas  still  advanced 
at  some  points  after  she  had  begun  to  fall  back  at 
others.  But  we  cannot  be  far  wrong  in  picking  out 
some  time  not  far  from  the  beginning  of  the  sixth 
century  before  Christ  as  the  most  brilliant  time  of 
the  free  Hellenes  throughout  the  world.  Then,  as 
Herodotus  puts  it,  all  Greeks  were  still  free ;  it  was 
in  the  course  of  the  next  century  that  some  Greeks 
were  brought  under  the  power  of  barbarian  mastera. 
If  some  Greek  colonies  were  still  to  be  planted,  all 
the  fields  of  Greek  colonization  had  already  been 
opened.  And  in  most  of  them  the  Greek  cities  were 
at  the  height  of  their  power  and  greatness,  positive 
and  relative;  they  were  greater  than  they  were  in 
after  days,  greater  than  the  cities  of  old  Greece  were 
at  the  same  time.  It  is  one  of  the  truths  which  it 
is  hardest  to  take  in,  that  there  was  a  time  when 
Miletos  and  Sybaris  and  Akragas,  rather  than  Athens 
or  Sparta,  were  the  greatest  cities  of  the  Hellenic 
name.  The  like  came  again  at  a  later  time,  when 
the  greatest  of  Greek  cities  were  Alexandria  and 
Antioch.  That  the  life  of  Athens  and  Sparta  was 
the  more  abiding  proves  that  the  Greek  was  after 
all  more  at  home  on  the  soil  on  which  he  grew  to  be 
a  Greek  ;  but  the  fact  that,  at  one  time  the  colonial, 
at  another  the  Macedonian,  cities  altogether  out- 
shone the  older  and   truer  Hellas    is  a  fact  which 


24         EUROPE  BEFORE  THE  ROMAN  POWER. 

should  be  ever  borne  in  mind.     In  the  great  days 
of    tbe    Greek    colonies    the    greater    part   of  the 
Mediterranean  coasts  was  divided  between   settlers 
from  Greece  and   settlers   from  Phoenicia.     In  the 
eastern  seas  the  Greek  had  the  supremacy;  the  true 
life  and  strength  of  the  men  of  Canaan  had  passed 
away  from  Sidon  and  Tyre  to  the  Phoenician  cities 
in  the  western  Mediterranean,  to  Panormos  in  the 
great   central   island,  to   Gadeira  on  the  Ocean,  to 
Utica  on  the  Libyan  coast,  to  the  New  City  which 
outshone  her  parents  and  elder  sisters,  to  mighty 
Carthage,  chief  and  in  course  of  time  mistress  of  her 
fellows.     From   the  .^gssan  islands  the  Phoenician 
had  withdrawn  before  the  Greek ;  even  in  more  dis- 
tant Cyprus  the  Greek  had  gained  the  upper  hand. 
Far  to  the  south,  on  the  Libyan  mainland,  the  fertile 
coast  between  the   Egyptian  and  the  Carthaginian 
had  beheld  the  growth  of  Kyr^nd  and  her  sisters  of 
the  Greek  Pentapolis.    The  Greek  cities  of  Asia  were 
among  the  most  flourishing  in  the  world ;  the  gates 
of  the  Bosporos  had  been  thrown  open ;  the  Pontes 
was  no  longer  the  Inhospitable  but  the  Hospitable 
Sea ;  if  the  most  abiding  seat  of  Hellenic  freedom, 
Cherson  on  her  Tauric  peninsula,  had  not  already 
sprung  into  being,  the  path  had  at  least  been  opened 
for  her.     On  the  western  side  of  her  own  peninsula, 
Greece  was  creeping  up  the  Hadriatic  coast;   set- 
ting aside  later  settlements,  setting  aside  doubtful 
tales  of  earlier  settlements,  Akarnania  was  now  part 
of   the   Greek    mainland,    Korkyra   was    numbered 
among  Greek  islands,  Ambrakia,  perhaps  Epidamnos 


THE  GREEK  COLONIES.  25 

and  Apollonia,  had  begun  their  course ;  Greek  cul- 
ture was  spreading  among  the  kindred  nations;  if 
narrower  Hellenic  feeling  forbade  to  the  Thesprotian 
and  the  Molottian  any  share  in  the  Hellenic  name, 
wider  and  more  liberal  inquirers  did  not  deny  their 
right.  But,  above  all,  this  is  the  age  of  the  greatness 
of  the  Greek  folk  in  the  lands  west  of  Hadria,  that 
greatness  which  so  soon  dwindled  away,  and  which 
adventurous  kings  from  Sparta  and  Epeiros  strove 
in  vain  to  restore.  The  Phoenician,  whose  settle- 
ments once  studded  the  eastern  and  southern  coasts 
of  Sicily,  is  now  driven  into  the  north-western 
comer  of  the  island ;  the  Sicilian  cities  are  among 
the  foremost  of  the  Greek  name ;  if  Syracuse  is  less 
great  than  she  was  in  days  to  come,  it  is  because 
Akragas  and  Gela  have  not  yet  fallen  from  their 
first  greatness.  In  southern  Italy,  alone  in  lands 
out  of  the  old  home,  in  a  peninsular  land  recalling 
the  old  home,  Hellas  spreads  from  sea  to  sea;  the 
Greater  Greece  holds  the  land  firmly  with  her 
great  cities ;  Sybaris  has  reached  the  greatness  from 
which  she  is  soon  to  fall  into  utter  nothingness ; 
Taras,  not  yet  Latin  Tarentum,  has  begun  the  long 
life  some  traces  of  which  hang  about  her  even  in  our 
own  day.  As  for  the  Greek  cities  in  the  Western 
Mediterranean,  Massalia  and  her  feUows,  their  full 
day  of  greatness,  their  day  of  widest  influence  over 
barbarian  neighbours,  had  as  yet  hardly  come.  But 
it  was  coming ;  the  work  was  begun.  In  that  day 
Hellenic  life  is  fully  as  vigorous  and  flourishing  in 
the  Western  as  in  the  Eastern  lands.     Continuous 


26  EUROPE  BEFORE  THE  ROMAN  POWER. 

Hellas   lies  between  the   two,  for  a  moment  less 
brilliant,  of  less   influence  in  the  world,   than  the 
two   great  ranges  of  Greek  colonization  on   either 
side    of   it.      But   when   the  whole   Mediterranean 
coast  might  seem  to  be  divided  between  the  Greek 
and  the   Phoenician,  two    lands  stand    marked    as 
having   supplied   no   home   for    the    settlements  of 
either.      There  was   the   land  whose  day  of  great- 
ness   had    gone    bj,  and    the    land    whose    day   of 
greatness  was  coming.      By  the  banks  of  the  Nile 
the  site  of  Alexandria  still  stood  unnoticed  by  all 
the    wisdom   of  a   thousand   Pharaohs ;    the  Greek 
was  already  known  in   Egypt  as  a  mercenary;  he 
had    not    yet  come  to    reign  as   a   Preserver   and 
a  Benefactor.     By  the  banks  of  the  Tiber,  Eome, 
perhaps  already  the  head  of  Latium,  not  yet  aspiring 
to  be  the  head  of  the  world  or  the  head  of  Italy, 
was  biding  her  time ;  not  yet  herself  conquering  or 
colonizing,  but  strong  enough,  along  with  her  vahant 
neighbours,  to  keep  central  Italy  as  an  Italian  land, 
in  which  neither  the  men  of  Hellas  nor  the  men  of 
Canaan  should  find  a  dwelling-place. 

This  then,  from  the  point  of  view  of  oecumenical 
history,  is  the  time  which  saw  the  full  height  of 
strictly  Hellenic  greatness,  the  greatness  of  Hellenic 
commonwealths,  the  greatness  of  states  which  were 
Greek  by  birth  and  not  only  Greek  by  adoption. 
Let  us  pass  on  to  the  next  strongly  marked  period, 
the  days,  stretching  not  very  much  beyond  a  century 
and  a  half,  which  are  undoubtedly  the  most  brilliant 
days  in  the  life  of  some  of  the  greatest  cities  of  the 


WARFARE  WITH  PERSIA.  27 

elder  Hellas,  and  whicli  have  therefore  often  been 
mistaken  for  the  whole  history  of  the  Greek  people. 
Now,  as  Herodotus  says,  we  can  no  longer  say  that 
all  Greeks  are  free.  In  the  course  of  the  sixth 
century  B.C.  the  work  of  Mummius  and  Mahomet 
begins ;  Greeks  now  begin  to  be  the  subjects  of 
foreign  rulers.  Barbarian  powers  such  as  Greeks 
had  never  yet  had  to  deal  with  have  arisen  in  East 
and  West.  Two  such  powers  above  all  have  come 
to  the  front,  a  mighty  empire  in  the  East,  a  mighty 
commonwealth  in  the  West,  an  empire  and  a  com- 
monwealth which  for  some  generations  were  to  be 
names  of  fe^-r  throughout  the  Hellenic  world.  On 
the  one  side  the  old  barbarian  powers  of  Asia, 
powers  which  lay  beyond  the  range  of  European 
history,  have  given  way  to  a  new  barbarian  power 
which  forced  itself  within  the  European  range,  and 
which  we  may  almost  say  had  a  right  to  force 
itself.  It  was  not  against  the  Hittite  or  the 
Assyrian  that  the  strife  had  to  be  waged,  but 
against  the  kindred  Persian.  An  Aryan  people  had 
been  misled  in  their  course  of  wandering ;  they  had 
strayed  into  the  land  of  morning ;  they  now  turned 
their  faces  towards  the  setting  sun,  but  they  turned 
them  only  when  it  was  too  late,  when  they  had 
already  put  on  the  guise  of  the  lands  of  their  sojourn 
and  could  show  themselves  among  their  European 
kinsfolk  in  no  light  but  that  of  barbarian  invaders. 
Yet  we  must  pay  our  tribute  to  the  long  abiding 
national  life  and  national  energy  which  could  so  often 
rise  again  in  full  freshness  after  ages  of  bondage.     It 


28  EUROPE  BEFORE  THE  ROMAN  POWER. 

was  no  mean  people  which  could  twice  spring  into 
fresh  being  at  the  preaching  of  a  national  religion. 
It  was  in  truth  no  small  mission  in  the  world's  history 
that  fell  to  the  lot  of  the  Aiyan  of  Persia.  Once  the 
worthy  rival  of  Greece,  he  rose  again  to  be  the 
worthy  rival  of  Kome ;  like  the  Greek,  he  could 
lead  captive  successive  conquerors ;  in  the  grasp  of 
the  Saracen,  in  the  grasp  of  the  Turk,  his  old  life 
could  still  abide,  and,  if  he  bowed  to  the  creed  of 
Arabia,  it  was  only  by  changing  it  into  a  new  shape 
which  made  it  before  all  things  the  creed  of  Persia. 
The  Lydian  reaped  the  first-fruits  of  Greek  sub- 
jection; the  Persian  threatened  to  turn  the  whole 
eastern  half  of  Hellas,  contuiuous  and  scattered,  into 
part  of  a  world-wide  dominion.  The  King — ^aa-iXevg 
• — forestalling  in  that  simple  word  the  titles  and  con- 
troversies of  days  to  come,  was  indeed  beaten  back 
from  old  Hellas ;  he  was  beaten  back  from  Europe ; 
he  was  for  a  while  forced  to  withdraw  his  fleets  and 
armies  from  the  Hellenic  coasts  of  Asia.  But  the 
fact  that  he  had  to  be  driven  back  from  all  of  them 
of  itself  showed  what  an  enemy  it  was  against  whom 
Greece  had  now  to  strive.  For  a  moment  Thebes 
was  the  willing  ally,  Athens  was  the  defenceless 
conquest,  of  the  lord  of  Susa  and  Ekbatana.  And 
after  all  the  Persian  did  cut  Hellas  short  on  the  side 
of  Asia ;  he  even  declared  his  will  as  a  master  in  the 
councils  of  Europe.  A  century  had  not  passed 
since  the  day  of  Salamis  when,  by  the  peace  of 
Antalkidas,  the  peace  which  the  King  sent  down, 
the   Greek    cities    of  Asia,    the    Greek    cities  of 


WARFARE  WITH  CARTHAGE.  29 

Cyprus,  were    formally    acknowledged    to    be  tlie 
King's. 

In  the  West  meanwhile  Hellas  had  to  strive 
against  a  rival  yet  more  worthy  of  her  rivalry,  not 
against  a  barbarian  empire,  but  against  a  barbarian 
commonwealth.  The  old  Phoenicia  on  the  Syrian 
shore  had  fallen  from  its  glory;  its  commonwealths, 
still  rich  and  flourishing,  had  sunk  into  dependencies 
of  the  Persian  power.  The  great  field  of  Phoenician 
enterprise  now  lay  in  the  western  seas.  One  Phoe- 
nician city,  the  youngest  of  the  great  Phoenician 
cities,  had  risen  to  a  place  in  the  world  and  the 
world's  history  such  as  the  cities  of  the  elder 
Canaan  had  never  reached.  The  New  City,  Carthage, 
was  now  the  centre  and  representative  of  Phoenician 
life  far  more  than  Sidon  or  Tyre.  Carthage,  in 
after  days  the  rival  of  Kome,  was  now  before  all 
things  the  rival  of  Greece.  She  was  to  bring  Rome 
nearer  to  destruction  than  was  ever  done  by  any 
other  power  of  the  Mediterranean  world;  she  was 
to  destroy  for  a  season,  to  weaken  for  ever,  more 
than  one  of  the  greatest  among  the  western  cities 
of  Hellas.  At  the  head  of  a  mighty  following  of 
dependencies  of  her  own  race,  swollen  by  barbarian 
subjects  and  mercenaries  of  every  race,  the  Asiatic 
city  planted  on  the  shores  of  Africa  came  nearer 
than  any  other  power  of  those  days  to  rooting  up 
the  elder  life  of  Europe,  the  life  of  which  first 
Greece  and  then  Italy  was  the  centre.  We  do  not 
rightly  take  in  the  full  significance  of  the  struggle 
which  Greece  went  through  at  the  beginning  of  the 


30  EUROPE  BEFORE  THE  ROMAN  POWER. 

fifth  century  B.C.  if  we  do  not  at  every  moment  bear 
in  mind  how  the  whole  Greek  folk  was  attacked  on 
both  sides  at  once.  It  may  or  may  not  be  true  that 
Xerxes  entered  into  an  actual  league  with  Carthage ; 
it  may  or  may  not  be  true  that  the  fight  of  Salamis 
and  the  fight  of  Himera  were  fought  on  the  same 
day.  True  or  false,  both  beliefs  set  forth  the  true 
position  of  the  Greek  states  at  that  moment, 
threatened  by  Persia  on  one  side  and  by  Carthage 
on  the  other.  The  Persian  was  beaten  back  ;  from 
the  actual  soil  of  continuous  Hellas  he  was  beaten 
back  for  ever.  The  Carthaginian  was  beaten  back 
only  for  a  moment;  he  still  kept  his  hold  on  Sicily; 
he  was  yet  to  destroy  Selinous  and  Akragas,  to 
come  within  a  hair's-breadth  of  destroying  Syracuse. 
In  earHer  days  the  scattered  Phoenician  settlements 
in  eastern  Sicily  had  withdrawn  before  the  coming 
of  the  Greek  colonists ;  but  now  the  Phoenician 
power  was  wielded  by  a  single  mighty  common- 
wealth which  held  some  of  its  strongest  outposts, 
Panormos  at  their  head,  in  the  north-western 
corner  of  the  great  island.  In  Sicily  things  seem 
to  have  turned  round;  the  European  holds  the 
eastern,  the  Asiatic  holds  the  western  coast.  And 
it  is  now  the  masters  of  the  western  coast  that 
threaten  the  eastern. 

But  the  Persian  and  the  Phoenician  were  not  the 
only  enemies  against  whom  the  scattered  Greek 
nation  had  to  strive.  Foes  nearer  to  the  Greek  in 
race  than  the  Phoenician,  less  widely  removed  in 
poHtical   and  social  institutions  than  the   Persian, 


THE  GREEKS  IN  ITALY.  31 

were  threatening  the  power  and  the  being  of  one 
great  division  of  the  Greek  name.  The  second  of  the 
great  peninsulas  of  southern  Eurppe,  the  central  one 
of  the  three,  the  peninsula  which  held  Eome  and 
Capua  and  the  cities  of  the  Etruscan,  was  beginning 
to  come  to  the  front  in  the  drama  of  history.  There 
was  as  yet  no  sign  that  Italy  was  to  be  the  ruling 
land  of  the  world ;  but  there  were  signs  that  Italy 
was  no  longer  to  be  a  land  in  which  settlers  of 
foreign  races  might  carve  themselves  homes  at 
pleasure.  The  name  of  Eome  was  beginning  to  be 
heard  in  Hellenic  ears,  but  it  was  as  yet  hardly  a 
name  of  fear.  It  was  as  yet  the  native  races  of 
southern  Italy  that  the  Greek  cities  had  to  dread, 
and  Eome  was  for  a  while  the  enemy  of  their 
enemies.  The  Persian  and  the  Carthaginian  were 
strictly  enemies  from  without ;  the  Persian  was  in 
every  sense  an  invader  of  the  soil  of  the  oldest 
Hellas ;  the  Carthaginian  was  at  most  winning  a 
land  in  which  other  branches  of  his  race  had  once 
made  settlements ;  but  the  Lucanians  and  the  other 
nations  of  southern  Italy  were,  in  the  strictest  sense, 
winning  back  their  own  land  from  strangers.  When 
Kym^  and  Poseidonia  ceased  to  be  cities  of  Hellas, 
in  one  sense  the  boundaries  of  the  civilized  world 
fell  back ;  in  another  we  may  say  that  they  ad- 
vanced, as  the  nations  of  Italy  began  to  show  that 
the  time  was  come  for  the  men  of  the  central 
peninsula  to  play  their  part  in  the  world's  history 
as  well  as  the  men  of  the  older  peninsula  to  the 
east  of  them. 


32  EUROPE  BEFORE  THE  ROMAN  POWER. 

By  the  middle  of  the  fourth  century  B.C.  the  de- 
cline of  Greece  is,  even  on  the  shallowest  view, 
allowed  to  have  begun.  But  it  is  commonly  held  to 
have  begun  merely  because  the  Macedonian  king- 
dom was  beginning  to  step  into  that  position  of 
primacy  among  the  Greek  powers  which  had  been 
held  at  different  times  by  the  cities  of  Argos,  Sparta, 
Athens,  and  Thebes.  And  as  regards  the  political 
life  of  the  great  Greek  cities,  above  all,  as  regards 
the  political  life  of  that  Athens  which  we  are  so 
often  tempted  to  mistake  for  Greece,  the  change 
was  great  indeed,  sad  indeed.  But  we  must  not 
forget  that  the  political  decline  of  the  great  cities 
of  old  Greece  was  but  one  part  of  the  general 
political  decline  of  the  Hellenic  people,  and  also  that 
a  large  part  of  old  Greece  itself  looked  on  the 
change  in  quite  another  light  from  that  in  which 
we  are  used  to  look  at  it  from  the  purely  Athenian 
point  of  view.  With  the  voice  of  Demosthenes 
ringing  in  our  ears,  it  is  hard  to  listen  to  the  calm 
comments  of  Polybios,  when  he  hands  on  to  us  the 
traditions  of  Megalopolis  and  of  so  many  other  cities 
by  whom  Philip  was  looked  on  as  a  friend  and  de- 
liverer, a  pious  crusader  against  the  sacrilegious 
Phokian.  But  yet  more  important  it  is  to  remember 
that,  if  old  Hellas  lost  much  through  the  advance  ox 
the  Macedonian,  the  younger  Hellas  beyond  Hadria 
lost  immeasureably  more  through  the  advance  of  the 
Phoenician  and  the  native  Italian.  Cry  after  cry 
for  help  went  up  from  Italy  and  Sicily  to  the 
motherland  in   Greece.      A   series   of  adventurers, 


DECLINE  OF  THE  WESTERN  GREEKS.  33 

republican  and  princely,  crossed  the  sea  to  bear  help 
to  their  threatened  brethren  or  to  carve  out  a 
dominion  for  themselves.  Some  went  to  free  Greek 
cities  from  domestic  tyrants,  others  to  free  them 
from  the  yoke  of  the  advancing  barbarian.  That 
men  from  the  motherland  were  needed  for  either 
work  shows  that  the  great  day  of  the  Western 
Greeks  had  passed  away,  that  they  could  no  longer 
keep  either  internal  freedom  or  external  indepen- 
dence by  their  own  strength.  And,  dark  as  is 
the  tale  of  Dionysios  and  Agathokles,  we  cannot 
wholly  put  out  of  sight  that  even  they  had  a 
brighter  side  as  in  some  sort  champions  of  Hellas 
against  the  barbarian.  We  must  not  forget  Dionysios 
as  the  planter  of  Greek  colonies  on  both  sides  of 
Hadria,  nor  Agathokles  as  the  man  who  carried  the 
arms  of  Europe  to  the  shores  of  Africa,  the  fore^ 
runner  of  Kegulus  and  Scipio,  of  Roger  of  Sicily  and 
Charles  of  Austria.  But  the  mission  of  Di6n  and 
of  the  nobler  Timoleon,  the  warfare  of  the  Spartan 
and  the  Epeirot,  of  Archidamos  and  Alexander  and 
Pyrrhos,  showed  that  the  Greeks  of  the  West  could 
no  longer  stand,  even  by  the  help  of  the  Greeks  of 
the  old  Hellenic  lands  or  of  the  lands  which  had 
become  Hellenic  by  adoption.  Their  doom  was  sealed; 
so  before  long  was  the  doom  of  all  lands,  the  lands 
of  the  Macedonian  and  the  Carthaginian  no  less  than 
the  lands  of  the  Sicilian  and  the  Italian  Greek.  But 
the  fall  of  Macedon  and  the  fall  of  Carthage  were  yet 
far  distant ;  those  lands  were  reaching  their  highest 
pitch  of  greatness  at  the  moment  when  it  became  plain 

D 


34  EUROPE  BEFORE  THE  ROMAN  POWER. 

that  all  that  was  left  for  the  Greeks  of  the  West  was 
to  become  subjects  or  dependents  of  an  Italian  power. 
Another  point  to  be  noticed  is  the  close  connexion 
between  the  destiny  of  the  Eastern  and  of  the  Western 
Greeks.  The  Spartan  princes  sought  for  a  career  in 
Italy  because,  in  face  of  the  advance  of  Macedonia, 
there  was  no  career  left  for  them  in  old  Greece. 
Moreover  the  Epeirot  kings  Alexander  and  Pyrrhos 
are  themselves  part  of  the  Hellenismos ;  they  are 
among  the  chiefest  signs  that  the  Hellenic  name  and 
culture  had  spread  beyond  the  genealogical  bounds 
of  the  Hellenic  nation.  Their  people  might  have  an 
ancient  kindred  with  the  Greeks;  they  themselves 
might  come  of  the  blood  of  Achilleus ;  but  they  were 
still,  in  the  wider  aspect  of  the  time,  Greeks  by 
adoption  only.  And  the  career  of  tlie  Epeirot  kings 
in  the  West  was  directly  suggested  by  the  career  of 
the  Macedonian  kings  in  the  East.  Their  land 
looked  towards  Italy  and  Sicily  yet  more  directly 
than  Macedonia  looked  towards  Asia  ;  and  perhaps 
Alexander,  certainly  Pyrrhos,  sought  to  found  be- 
yond the  Hadriatic  a  Western  Greek  dominion  to 
balance  the  Eastern  Greek  dominion  which  the 
Macedonians  had  founded  beyond  the  ^gaean.  So 
it  was  not  to  be.  The  decree  had  gone  forth  that 
Greece,  in  her  new  guise,  was  to  leaven  the  East, 
for  a  while  to  rule  over  the  East,  but  that  in  the 
West  the  political  power  of  the  Greek  race  was  to 
die  out,  that  even  its  intellectual  influence  was 
to  be  indirect,  an  influence  which  had  to  accept 
Eoman  masters  and  disciples  as  its  instruments. 


APPEARANCE  OF  ROME  IN  THE  EAST.  35 

Yet  the  day  was  coming  when  Eome  was  to  rule 
in  the  East  as  well  as  in  the  West ;  she  was  step  by 
step  to  draw  all  the  Greek  powers,  those  that  were 
Greek  by  adoption  as  well  as  those  that  we  may  call 
Greek  by  birth,  within  the  spell  of  that  influence 
which  silently  changed  from  alliance  to  subjection. 
The  details  of  that  process,  the  picture  of  the  world 
into  which  Rome  burst  as  it  were  in  a  moment,  the 
history  in  short  of  the  third  and  second  centuries, 
have,  in  the  common  course  of  so-called  classical 
studies,  met  with  a  neglect  which  can  be  measured 
only  by  their  paramount  importance  in  universal 
history.  The  distinctive  aspect  of  that  age  I  shall 
have  to  speak  of  again.  I  wish  now  to  point  out 
how  rich  in  political  instruction  of  every  kind,  rich 
perhaps  beyond  every  other  age  of  so-caUed  classical 
times,  the  age  of  Polybios  really  is.  The  Greek 
world  of  his  day  was  made  up  of  an  assemblage 
of  states,  of  every  degree  of  power  and  of  every 
form  of  political  constitution.  There  was  nothing 
like  it  in  the  earlier  days  of  Greece;  there  was 
nothing  like  it  in  the  after  days  when  Rome  practi- 
cally became  the  world.  But  the  Greek  world  of 
those  days  gives  us  a  lively  image  of  the  political 
state  of  modern  Europe  for  some  ages  past.  The 
political  experience  of  Polybios  was  immeasureably 
wider  than  that  of  Thucydides ;  he  had  in  truth 
an  experience  fully  as  wide  and  varied  as  that  of 
any  modern  statesman.  Thucydides  knew  only  the 
independent  city,  oligarchic  or  democratic,  and  the 
city  which  would  fain  be  independent  but  was  not. 

D  2 


?6  EUROPE  BEFORE  THE  ROMAN  POWER. 

In  his  day  kingship  and  federation — federation 
worthy  to  be  so  called — were  still  in  the  back- 
ground; they  hardly  stood  forth  on  the  political 
stage ;  kingship  was  not  the  constitution  of  any 
acknowledged  Greek  power ;  federation  was  not  the 
constitution  of  any  Greek  power  of  the  first  or  even 
of  the  second  rank.  But  Polybios  could  study,  within 
the  range  of  Greek  or  Greek-speaking  powers,  every 
form  of  kingship  and  every  form  of  commonwealth. 
There  was  the  national  kingship  of  Macedonia,  the 
king  ruKng  over  his  own  people.  There  was  the 
local  kingship  of  Egypt,  the  rule  of  Greek  kings. over 
a  foreign  nation.  There  was  the  Seleukid  dominion, 
fallen  indeed  from  its  old  greatness,  but  whose 
kings  still  kept  up  some  memory  of  the  position 
alike  of  Cyrus  and  of  Alexander,  the  position  of  the 
Great  King,  the  King  of  Kings,  ruling  over  lands  and 
cities,  Greek  and  barbarian,  of  every  speech,  of  every 
form  of  life,  of  every  kind  of  relation  to  the  central 
power.  And  the  Greek  city-commonwealth,  fully 
free  and  independent,  was  still  a  familiar  form  of 
political  life ;  nor  need  it  shock  us  that  the  purest 
and  noblest  example  of  a  Greek  democracy  was  now 
to  be  found,  not  at  Athens  but  at  Bhodes.  But 
the  highest  political  life  of  Greece,  above  all  of 
old  European  Greece,  was  now  to  be  found  in  the 
federal  states,  in  Polybios'  own  Achaia,  in  gallant 
and  faithful  Akarnania,  in  the  adopted  Greek  land 
of  Epeiros,  nay  too  in  after  days  beyond  the 
i?ea,  among  worthy  imitators  of  Hellenic  models, 
in  that  land  of  Lykia  whose  people,  in  the  latest 


THE  GREEK  WORLD  IN  THE  POLYBIAN  AGE.    Zl 

day  as  in  the  earliest,  stand  forth  as  the  worthiest 
folk  of  Asia,  alongside  of  the  men  of  Achaia, 
worthiest  folk  of  Europe.  Achaia,  Ehodes,  Perga- 
mon;  it  was  no  mean  lesson  to  be  able  to  study 
the  federal  commonwealth,  the  single  city  common- 
wealth, the  kingship  of  a  house  worthy  to  reign, 
each  standing  forth  in  a  model  example  of  those 
three  several  forms  of  government.  In  such  a  systenl 
of  states  as  this,  instead  of  the  simpler  relations  of 
earlier  days,  we  come  across  all  the  complications  of 
modern  international  politics.  While  the  old  repub- 
lican Hfe  goes  on,  we  see  beside  it  the  working 
of  dynastic  interests,  the  influence  of  queens  and 
ministers,  exactly  as  in  the  modem  world.  Diplomacy 
has  its  work  to  do,  and  a  busy  and  constant  work  it  is. 
Nor  is  the  history  of  these  times  simply  the  history 
of  petty  states.  Not  only  Macedonia  and  Egypt, 
but  Pergamon,  Achaia,  Ehodes,  were  all  great  powers 
according  to  the  standard  of  any  earlier  age.  They 
were  the  leading  states  of  their  own  world,  the  chief 
members  of  an  established  system  in  which  each 
held  its  place  exactly  like  the  states  of  the  modern 
world.  Suddenly  a  foreign  power  broke  in  among 
them,  a  power  far  stronger  than  any  of  them, 
a  power  which  came  from  another  world  beyond 
their  range,  and  which  in  a  moment  changed  the 
face  of  the  world  into  which  it  entered.  The  sudden- 
ness of  this  irruption  of  Home  into  the  Greek 
world,  the  speed  with  which  she  sprang  at  once 
to  the  first  place  in  the  East  as  well  as  in  the 
West,  are  among  the  most  striking   parts   of  the 


38  EUROPE  BEFORE  THE  ROMAN  POWER. 

story.  They  stand  out  in  marked  contrast  alike 
to  the  slow  steps  by  -which  Eome  had  marched  to 
the  headship  of  the  West  and  to  the  slow  steps 
by  which  her  leadership  in  the  East  was  changed 
into  direct  and  universal  rule.  Next  to  the  de- 
lusion that  the  Empire  of  Eome  came  to  an  end  in 
476  A.D.  stands  the  delusion  that  free  Greek  states 
came  to  an  end  in  146  B.C.  This  last  delusion 
may  be  easier  to  get  rid  of  than  the  other.  The 
third  and  second  centuries  B.C.  have  at  least  the 
advantage  of  being  left  pretty  clear  from  the  touch 
of  the  crammer.  It  is  easier  to  write  on  white  paper 
than  to  make  parchment  ready  for  a  palimpsest.  It 
may  be  easier  to  set  forth  the  true  aspect  of  the  age 
which  ruled  that  Rome  should  be  the  head  of  the 
world  than  it  is  to  set  forth  the  true  aspect  of  the 
age  which  answers  to  it,  the  age  which  ruled  in 
what  shape  Rome  should  still  remain  the  head  of  the 
world,  though  her  political  dominion  over  half  her 
provinces  was  broken  in  pieces. 


LECTURE    II. 
ROME  THE   HEAD   OF  EUROPE. 

In  my  last  lecture  I  strove  to  di-aw  a  picture  of  the 
Mediterranean  lands  at  the  moment  when  the  Greek 
world,  as  the  Greek  world  had  been  shaped  by- 
Macedonian  conquest,  a  world  of  kingdoms,  federa- 
tions, and  single  cities,  a  busy  and  intricate  system 
full  of  the  deepest  political  lessons  at  every  step, 
was  suddenly  startled  by  the  invasion  of  a  power 
from  the  West.  That  power  had  already  slowly 
risen  to  the  first  place  in  its  own  Western  world; 
it  now  sprang  as  in  a  moment  to  the  first  place  in 
the  East ;  but,  having  thus  sprung  to  the  first  place, 
it  was  content  to  fall  back  on  its  former  slow  and 
piecemeal  course.  Generations  had  to  pass  away 
before  the  paramount  influence  in  the  Greek  world 
which  Rome  won  at  a  single  grasp  was  fully  changed 
into  immediate  dominion  over  every  land  and  city 
to  which  its  influence  had  spread.  Very  early  in 
the  second  century  B.C.  Rome  was  already  the  para- 
mount power  in  the  Greek  world.  She  had  not  a 
single  province  east  of  Hadria ;  but  cities,  confedera- 
tions, kingdoms,  all  knew  that  she  was  practically 
their  mistress.  Late  in  the  first  century  a.d.  Rome 
had  many  provinces  east  of  Hadria ;  her  immediate 
dominion  had  become  the  rule,  and  even  nominal 


40  ROME  THE  HEAD  OF  EUROPE. 

independence  was  the  exception ;  bvit  there  were 
still  free  Greek  cities  which  Vespasian  deemed  it 
prudent  to  bring  under  his  immediate  dominion, 
and  there  were  not  a  few  other  free  Greek  cities 
which  Vespasian  left  to  give  Trajan  an  opportunity 
of  respecting  the  faith  of  treaties.  The  first  step 
in  short  was  sudden  and  swift ;  every  later  step  was 
slow;  but  the  first  step  carried  every  later  step 
with  it  as  its  necessary  consequence.  In  the  in- 
terval between  the  First  and  Second  Punic  Wars, 
Eome  appeared  east  of  the  Hadriatic  as  the  deliverer 
of  Greek  cities  from  the  pirates  of  Illyricum.  That 
•was  in  truth  the  first  step  in  that  eastward  march 
"by  which,  five  hundred  and  fifty  years  later,  Eome 
herself,  in  her  own  person,  followed  in  the  wake  of 
her  dominion,  and  transferred  her  seat  from  the 
seven  hills  by  the  Tiber  to  the  seven  hills  by  the 
Bosporos.  Or  shall  we  say  that  the  first  step  was 
taken  at  a  far  earlier  time  1  The  position  of  Borne 
as  an  Italian  state,  ruling  over.  Greek  aUies  and 
subjects,  but  in  return  deeply  affected  by  Greek 
influences  of  every  kind,  had  begun  while  Rome  still 
dwelled  in  her  own  peninsula.  Before  she  crossed 
the  Hadriatic,  she  had  begun  to  put  on  the  character 
of  that  compound  power,  politically  Eoman,  intel- 
lectually Greek,  whose  calling  it  was  to  leaven  the 
world.  The  extension  which  was  marked,  in  the 
later  half  of  the  third  century,  by  the  Eoman 
alliance  with  Apollonia,  Epidamnos,  and  Korkyra, 
was  an  extension  only  geographical.  The  ally  or 
mistress,   whichever    name    we    choose,   of   Naples, 


ROME  AND  THE  GREEKS.  it 

Tarentum,  and  Syracuse,  the  undoubted  mistress  of 
the  greater  half  of  Sicily,  had  already  begun  to  put 
on  the  character  of  a  Greek  power  before  she  drew 
sword  for  or  against  any  city  of  the  elder  Greece. 
Rome  had  entered  the  ranks  of  the  HeUenismos 
before  Corinth  admitted  her  citizens  to  strive  in  the 
games  of  the  Isthmos,  before  Athens  honoured  them 
with  initiation  into  the  holiest  rites  of  Demetdr  and 
her  Child. 

In  a  lecture  of  my  former  course  I  pointed  out 
some  of  the  physical  conditions  which  made  it 
possible  for  Eome  to  rise  to  the  headship  of  the 
world.  The  course  of  all  history,  I  then  ventured 
to  say,  had  been  determined  by  the  geological  fact 
that  certain  hills  by  the  Tiber  were  lower  and 
nearer  together  than  the  other  hills  of  Latium.  If 
I  were  lecturing  on  Eoman  history  as  such,  instead 
of  taking  a  glance  of  a  moment,  a  glance  of  a  mere 
thousand  years  or  so,  at  Rome  in  her  oecumenical 
position,  I  might  carry  out  this  thought  into  great 
detail.  For  my  present  purpose  it  is  enough  to  say 
that  the  central  spot  of  the  central  penmsula  was 
naturally  called  to  headship.  We  might  point  out 
that  the  process  which  made  Lugubalium  and  Nisibis 
bulwarks  of  Rome  began  when  the  Palatine  and  the 
Capitoline  hills  were  girded  by  a  single  wall.  But 
it  is  enough  for  us  to  mark  the  great  steps  in  the 
advance  of  the  Roman  power,  the  steps  which  made 
her  the  head  of  Latium,  the  head  of  Italy,  the  head 
of  the  West,  the  head,  and  in  the  end  the  mistress. 


42  ROME  THE  HEAD  OF  EUROPE. 

of  the  Mediterranean  world.  In  all  these  stages  we 
must  ever  bear  in  mind  that  the  rule  of  Rome  was 
in  the  fullest  sense  the  rule  of  a  city,  a  rule  of 
essentially  the  same  kind  as  the  rule  of  other  ruling 
cities  before  and  after.  It  was  distinguished  from 
the  rule  of  Athens,  Sparta,  Carthage,  Bern,  and 
Venice  only  by  the  vastness  of  the  scale  to  which 
the  rule  of  the  Boman  city  extended,  and  by  the 
process,  unparalleled  in  the  history  of  any  other 
city,  by  which  the  franchise  of  the  ruling  common- 
wealth was  gradually  extended  to  all  its  allies  and 
subjects.  Latium,  Italy,  the  Mediterranean  world, 
were  merged  bit  by  bit,  not  only  in  the  Roman 
dominion  but  in  the  Roman  city,  till  every  Italian 
ally,  every  Greek  confederate,  even  every  barbarian 
provincial,  had  become  a  citizen  of  Rome.  It  is 
true  that  the  last  stage  of  the  process  did  not  take 
place  till  to  be  a  citizen  of  Rome  simply  meant  to 
be  a  subject  of  Rome's  master.  It  has  been  doubted, 
with  no  small  show  of  reason,  whether  the  edict 
of  Antoninus  Caracalla  was  not  an  immediate  loss 
rather  than  an  immediate  gain  to  those  whom  it 
admitted  to  the  full  honours  of  the  Roman  name. 
But  the  eye  of  universal  history  looks  at  the  change 
in  another  light.  The  edict  of  Antoninus,  whatever 
its  immediate  motives,  whatever  its  immediate  re- 
sults, did  in  the  end  create  an  artificial  Roman 
nation  throughout  the  Roman  dominion,  at  any 
rate  from  the  Ocean  to  Mount  Tauros.  Every  free- 
man  throughout  the  Empire  had  now  a  right  in  the 
name  and  traditions  of  Rome.     We  see  the  results 


TWOFOLD  CALLING  OF  ROME.  43 

of  this  change  in  the  men  of  the  fifth  and  sixth 
centuries,  in  those  Eomans  of  Gaul  and  Spain  who 
knew  no  national  name,  no  national  being,  save 
that  of  the  city  to  which  their  forefathers  had 
bowed.  We  see  its  yet  more  lasting  results  in  the 
Eomans  and  the  Eomania  of  the  East,  in  the  Greek- 
speaking  folk  from  whom  the  Eoman  name  has  not 
yet  wholly  passed  away,  in  the  Latin-speaking  folk 
to  whom  in  our  own  day  the  Eoman  name  has  again 
become  the  living  badge  of  their  regenerate  being. 

On  Eome  then,  as  head  of  Europe  in  a  sense  in 
which  no  other  among  the  powers  of  Europe  ever 
reached  that  headship,  the  two  duties  of  a  great 
European  power  were  laid  in  a  fulness  in  which  they 
were  never  laid  on  any  other.  Eome  was  called  on, 
before  all  others,  to  be  the  teacher  of  nations  of  her 
own  European  stock,  to  be  the  champion  of  Europe 
against  the  inroads  of  barbarians  from  without.  In 
the  former  character  her  teaching  had  sometimes  to 
be  sharp  ;  she  had  often  to  wield  the  rod  of  as  stem 
a  discipline  as  that  with  which  Gideon  taught  the 
men  of  Succoth.  It  was  the  mission  of  Eome  to 
make  the  Gaul  the  partaker  of  her  tongue  and  cul- 
ture. It  was  her  mission  to  make  the  Teuton  the 
heir  of  one  half  of  her  political  power.  She  was  to 
frame  out  of  his  stores  and  her  own  a  third  state  of 
things  distinct  from  either  of  the  elements  that  went 
to  frame  it.  Of  the  union  of  Teuton  and  Eoman 
sprang  the  world  of  modern  Europe.  But  for  that 
union  the  nations  had  to  bide  their  time ;  as  in  the 
games  of  Hellas,  they  that  rose  before  the  happy 


44  ROME  THE  HEAD  OE  EUROPE. 

moment  were  scourged  back  again.  They  who  cam6 
as  invaders  only  had  to  be  dealt  with  as  invaders 
and  not  as  disciples.  The  Gaul  who  came  before 
his  time  had  his  scourging  at  Sentinum ;  the  Teu- 
ton who  came  before  his  time  had  his  scourging 
at  Aqua?  Sextise  and  Yercellae.  But  how  well  the 
work  was  done  with  Gauls  and  Teutons  who  better 
knew  their  time  and  place,  we  see  when  the  Gaul 
Sidonius  paints  in  his  Eoman  speech  the  portrait  of 
one  Theodoric,  Gothic  lord  of  a  Eoman  realm ;  we 
see  it  when  a  greater  Theodoric,  Gothic  lord  of  a 
mightier  Eoman  realm,  legislates  from  his  throne  at 
Eavenna  for  the  welfare  of  Eome's  earliest  Gaulish 
province.  Here  was  one  side  of  the  mission  of  the 
head  of  Europe,  the  teacher  of  the  kindred  nations. 
Her  other  side  as  European  champion,  as  foremost 
representative  of  the  Eternal  cause,  stands  forth  in 
her  long  warfare  with  the  Carthaginian,  the  Persian, 
the  Arab,  and  the  Turk.  And  both  sides  stand  forth 
together  when  Eome,  lady  of  the  nations,  marches 
forth  with  her  Teutonic  comitatus  round  her  to  meet 
the  hosts  of  Attila.  The  work  was  well  in  doing 
when  Anianus  looked  from  the  walls  of  Orleans  on 
the  banners  of  deliverance,  Eoman  and  Gothic,  flock- 
ing side  by  side,  in  the  strife  when  Eoman,  Goth, 
and  Frank,  Catholic,  Arian,  and  heathen,  joined  to 
deal  the  final  blow  for  the  common  European  soil  on 
the  day  of  slaughter  in  the  Catalaunian  fields. 

How  the  Latin  city  of  Eome  marched  to  the  head- 
ship of  Latium,  how  the  head  of  Latium  marched  to 
the  headship  of  Italy,  are  matters  of  Eoman  rather 


ROME  THE  HEAD  OF  ITALY.  45 

than  of  universal  history.  The  oecumenical  calling 
of  Eome  comes  upon  her  as  soon  as  she  has  become 
the  head  of  Italy,  perhaps  more  strictly  in  the  very 
moment  of  her  becoming  such.  She  is  not  fully  head 
of  Italy  tiU  she  has  beaten  back  the  invader  from 
Epeiros  from  the  shores  of  her  peninsula.  But  her 
war  with  Pyrrhos  had  brought  her  into  the  thick  of 
the  Greek  world  and  all  its  complications.  Unless 
we  accept  the  tales  of  her  earlier  dealings  with 
Massalia,  Eome  has  not  yet  sought  either  Greek 
allies  or  Greek  enemies  beyond  the  bounds  of  Italy. 
But  Greece,  in  the  person  of  her  foremost  champion, 
had  come  to  seek  out  Eome  within  those  bounds. 
The  fight  of  Beneventum  ruled  that  Italy  should  be 
Italian ;  it  ruled  that  no  Greek  power  should  arise 
in  Western  Europe  to  balance  the  realms  of  Ptolemy 
and  Seleukos  in  the  East.  It  ruled  in  short  that  the 
head  of  Italy  should  be  Eome.  The  wars  which 
Eome  had  waged  against  the  Samnite  and  the  Gaul 
had  made  her  beyond  aU  comparison  the  first  power 
in  Italy.  The  war  with  Pyrrhos,  the  war  that 
threatened  to  make  Italy,  like  Asia  or  Egypt,  part 
of  a  Greek  dominion,  made  her  the  undoubted  head. 
The  head  of  Italy  now  stood  forth  as  one  of  the 
great  powers  of  the  world.  It  marks  one  of  the 
differences  between  the  political  state  of  those  days 
and  that  of  our  own  that  Eome  had  no  sooner  un- 
doubtedly risen  to  this  position  than  she  found  her- 
self engaged  in  a  struggle,  a  struggle  well  nigh  for 
life  and  death,  with  the  other  great  power  of  the 
Western  Mediterranean.    In  the  modern  world,  what- 


4ft  ROME  THE  HEAD  OF  EUROPE. 

ever  jealousies,  controversies,  wars,  may  arise  be- 
tween any  of  the  great  powers  of  Europe,  none  seeks 
the  utter  destruction  of  any  other,  none  seeks  the 
abiding  weakening  of  any  other,  its  degradation 
from  the  rank  of  a  great  power.  But  the  establish- 
ment of  Eome  as  the  undoubted  head  of  Italy,  as 
one  of  the  two  greatest  powers  of  the  West,  at  once 
condemned  her  to  abiding  rivalry  with  the  other 
power,  a  rivalry  which  might  be  salved  over  by  this 
or  that  interval  of  peace,  bat  which  meant  that, 
sooner  or  later,  either  Eome  or  Carthage  must  perish. 
We  must  remember  that,  while  between  any  other 
two  of  the  great  wars  of  Kome  there  was  some  slight 
interval  of  peace,  the  war  with  Pyrrhos  and  the 
Italian  allies  of  Pyrrhos  was  followed  without  any 
break  whatever  by  the  first  war  with  Carthage. 
That  war  was  the  War  for  Sicily.  On  any  theory  of 
natural  boundaries,  a  power  that  was  the  head  of 
Italy  might  reasonably,  so  far  as  there  is  reason  in 
such  matters,  expect  to  spread  its  dominion  over  the 
lands  within  the  Alps,  and  over  the  three  great  islands 
which  look  like  natural  appendages  to  the  peninsula 
of  Italy.  And  a  power  which  spread  itself  over  the 
lands  within  the  Alps,  a  power  which  from  its  own 
shores  could  look  out  on  the  mountains  of  Illyricum, 
could  hardly  expect  to  keep  itself  wholly  unen tangled 
by  the  affairs  of  the  lands  on  the  other  side  of 
Hadria.  Eome  then  had  hardly  become  the  head  of 
Italy  before  two  fields  of  action  were  opened  for  her 
without  a  breathing-space.  She  had  to  strive  with 
the  other  great  power  of  the  West,  and  signs  were 


THE  WAR  FOR  SICILY.  47 

not  wanting  that  before  long  her  destiny  would  call 
her  to  mingle  in  the  strifes  of  Eastern  Europe  also. 

The  Western  call  was  the  earlier  and  the  nearer. 
Close  on  the  war  with  Pyrrhos  followed  the  War  for 
Sicily,  the  war  of  more  than  twenty  years  waged 
mainly  on  the  waters  by  the  fleets  of  Eome  and 
Carthage.  As  a  war  for  Sicily,  as  one  of  the  greatest 
of  the  many  wars  for  Sicily,  it  takes  its  place  in  the 
long  range  of  cycles  which  make  up  the  history  of 
that  illustrious  island.  Eome  now  for  the  first  time 
buckled  on  her  harness  to  play  her  part  in  dealing 
with  the  Eternal  Question.  Was  the  greatest  of 
Mediterranean  islands  to  be  a  part  of  Europe  or  of 
Africa,  to  be  a  possession  of  Aryan  or  of  Semitic  man, 
to  be  the  home  of  the  gods  of  Alba  and  Olympos  or 
of  the  Moloch  and  Baalim  of  the  men  of  Canaan? 
The  Greek  had  waged  the  warfare  for  ages ;  the 
fates  had  gone  against  him ;  the  realm  of  Hierdn  was 
but  a  small  survival  of  the  days  when  Sicily  had 
come  so  near  to  being  a  purely  Hellenic  island. 
The  calling  for  which  Syracuse  was  too  weak  passed 
on  to  the  stronger  hand  of  Eome.  Panormos,  won 
for  Europe  for  eleven  hundred  years,  was  no  mean 
first-fruits  of  the  strife.  After  well  nigh  a  genera- 
tion of  warfare,  Eome  stood  forth  victorious,  mistress 
of  Sicily,  presently  mistress  of  Sardinia  and  Corsica, 
seized  of  her  first  provincial  dominion,  rich  in  the 
faithful  alliance  of  the  first  and  worthiest  of  her  long 
line  of  dependent  kings.  The  rival  power  came  out 
of  the  strife,  not  crushed,  hardly  weakened,  but 
driven  to  transfer  her  energies  to  a  new  sphere,  to 


'48  ROME  THE  HEAD  OF  EUROPE. 

seek  in  a  new  land  the  means  of  dealing  a  blow  at 
Eome  in  the  heart  of  her  own  Italy. 

The  choice  of  that  new  sphere  of  Carthaginian 
energy,  the  exploits  of  the  house  of  Hamilkar,  the 
line  of  the  sons  of  Thunder,  of  itself  opens  a  new 
and  important,  though  as  yet  a  secondary,  page  in 
the  history  of  Europe.  The  time  has  come  for  the 
most  western  of  her  three  peninsulas  to  play  its 
part  in  the  general  affairs  of  the  world.  But  the 
peninsula  which  was  not  wholly  Mediterranean, 
which  had  two  of  its  three  sides  washed  by  the 
outer  Ocean,  was  never  to  play  such  a  part  as  the 
elder  peninsulas  which  felt  only  the  waters  of  the 
inland  sea.  A  day  was  to  come  in  ages  still  far 
distant  when  Spain  should  be  a  ruling  power  in 
Italy  and  in  Greece.  But  Spain  never  was  to  be 
what  Italy  or  what  Greece  had  been,  nor  what  Italy 
•was  to  be  again.  For  several  centuries  her  fate  was 
to  be  a  great  and  flourishing  dependency  of  Kome, 
which,  when  it  had  once  fully  accepted  the  de- 
pendent relation,  was  to  be  less  disturbed  either  by 
civil  wars  or  by  foreign  invasion  than  any  other 
province  of  the  West.  And  now  her  fate  was  a 
strange  one,  but  a  fate  which  the  wonderful  cycles 
of  history  brought  back  again  after  more  than  nine 
hundred  years.  Spain  was  to  be  as  Sicily.  One 
phase  of  the  Eternal  Question  was  twice  to  be 
whether  the  most  western  land  of  Europe  should 
be  a  part  of  the  Western  or  the  Eastern  world. 
Kome  had  to  win  the  land  from  the  grasp  of  the 
Phoenician ;  its  own  sons  had  in  after  ages  to  win 


THE  CARTHAGINIANS  IN  SPAIN.  4& 

it  back  from  the  grasp  of  the  Saracen.  For  the 
moment  the  third  of  the  great  peninsulas  was  to  be 
in  turn  the  stronghold  of  either  side,  to  be  the 
arsenal  where  Carthage  first  gathered  up  her  strength 
for  the  attempted  overthrow  of  Eome,  and  where 
Rome  then  gathered  up  her  strength  for  the  more 
than  attempted  overthrow  of  Carthage. 

The  Punic  Wars  form  a  kind  of  episode  in  the 
history  of  Europe,  just  as  the  presence  of  a  Punic 
people  in  the  Western  Mediterranean  is  of  itself  an 
anomaly  and  in  some  sort  an  episode.  The  existence 
of  the  Carthaginian  power  hindered  what  we  might 
have  looked  on  as  the  natural  course  of  history  for 
the  three  great  European  peninsulas.  When  Rome 
had  become  the  undisputed  head  of  Italy,  the  next 
growth  of  her  power  might  have  been  looked  for 
in  the  direction  of  the  Gaul  and  of  the  Greek.  The 
headship  of  Italy  had  been  won  by  driving  back  a 
Greek  invasion,  an  invasion  from  a  Greek  land  within 
sight  of  Italy,  and  that  headship  might  be  looked  on 
as  imperfect  till  it  was  further  spread  over  Sicily  at 
one  end  and  Cisalpine  Gaul  at  the  other.  Sicily  was 
at  once  fought  for,  and  in  the  end  won ;  but  it  had 
to  be  won  from  the  intruding  Carthaginian.  When 
the  first  Punic  War  was  over,  the  eyes  of  Rome  were 
again  drawn  beyond  the  Po  and  beyond  the  Ha- 
driatic.  The  conquest  of  Cisalpine  Gaul  was  begun; 
the  Illyrian  wars  led  to  the  first  establishment  of 
•Rome  as  an  influence,  as  a  power,  in  the  Eastern 
peninsula.     Protector,  mistress  in  all  but  name,  of 

E 


50       ROME  THE  HEAD  OF  EUROPE. 

Korkyra,  Epidamnos,  and  Apollonia,  Kome  has  be- 
come an  element  in  the  affairs  of  Greece  herself  as 
•well  as  in  those  of  Greek  colonies  in  Italy,  Sicily, 
Spain,  and  Gaul.  She  has  won  the  jealousy  of  Mace- 
donia, the  good  will  of  the  free  states  of  Greece.  That 
is,  she  has  taken  the  first  steps  towards  bringing 
Greek  friends  and  Greek  enemies  ahke,  first  under 
her  influence  and  then  under  her  dominion. 

If  the  first  Punic  War  was  in  some  sort  an  episode 
in  European  history,  a  check  in  the  expected  march 
of  Kome,  still  more  truly  can  this  be  said  of  the 
second.  The  Hannibalian  War  stands  out  in  the 
history  of  the  world  as  before  all  things  a  strife  be- 
tween a  man  and  a  commonwealth,  a  strife  between 
the  first  of  men  and  the  first  of  commonwealths.  Yet 
if  Hannibal  overshadows  Carthage,  if  Carthage  seems 
but  an  instrument  in  his  hands,  we  must  remember 
that  Hannibal  has  no  being  apart  from  Carthage,  that 
the  work  that  he  does  is  not  the  work  of  Hannibal 
but  the  work  of  Carthage.  Nor  must  we  let  the 
glory  of  Hannibal  altogether  quench  the  glory  of  the 
other  members  of  his  house.  Eome  had  to  strive 
against  a  fine  of  heroes,  against  the  whole  lion-brood 
of  the  house  of  Barak.  One  son  of  Thunder  came 
after  another;  what  the  Grace  of  Baal  began,  the 
Help  of  Baal  came  to  strengthen.  But  in  our  swift 
cecumenical  survey  we  must  be  careful  of  tarrying  to 
do  homage  even  to  the  greatest  of  individual  men. 
We  have  to  deal  with  the  results  of  their  actions.  The 
object  of  the  Hannibalian  war  was  the  humiliation, 
the  destruction,  of  Kome.     Its  effect  was  to  raise 


THE  HANNIBALIAN  WAR.    \  61 

Eome  higher  than  ever,  to  make  her  in  one  generation 
the  head  of  the  whole  West,  before  long  to  be  the 
head  of  the  East  also.  It  brought,  as  we  have  seen, 
the  western  peninsula  into  the  current  of  European 
aifairs ;  it  brought  it  into  that  current  as  a  strong- 
hold of  Eoman  dominion ;  it  made  Eome  a  power  out 
of  Europe  ;  she  came  out  of  the  struggle  more  than 
ever  the  head  of  Italy,  mistress  of  all  Sicily,  advanc- 
ing to  be  mistress  of  Spain,  holding  a  commanding 
influence  in  Africa.  If  she  lost  Cisalpine  Gaul  for  a 
season,  it  was  only  for  a  season ;  the  work  could  be 
done  again,  and  Eome  won  an  influence  in  Gaul  be- 
yond the  Alps  which  was  presently  to  stand  her  in 
good  stead.  From  Eastern  Europe  her  eyes  are  turned 
away  for  a  moment,  to  be  turned  thither  again  in 
another  moment  with  far  more  steadfastness.  That 
which,  but  for  the  check  given  to  the  course  of  things 
by  the  great  Hannibalian  episode,  we  might  have 
looked  for  as  the  next  scene  of  the  drama,  now 
actually  comes  on  the  stage  as  an  episode  within  the 
episode.  Under  cover  as  it  were  of  the  war  with 
Hannibal,  Eome  for  the  first  time  wages  war  east 
of  the  Hadriatic  as  the  aUy  of  one  of  the  chief  Greek 
powers  and  as  the  enemy  of  another.  But  if  that 
first  war  between  Eome  and  Macedonia  looks  like  an 
episode,  if  it  seems  trifling  beside  the  great  strife 
with  Hannibal,  that  was  merely  because  the  Mace- 
donian king  failed  to  do  what  in  reason  he  ought  to 
have  done,  if  he  went  to  war  at  all.  The  phalanx 
and  the  siege-train  of  Philip  failed  to  take  their 
place  alongside  of  the  horsemen  and  the  elephants  of 

E  2 


52       ROME  THE  HEAD  OF  EUROPE. 

Hannibal.  Still  the  first  Macedonian  war  marks  a  most 
important  stage  in  the  advance  of  Rome  towards  the 
East.  Rome  now  for  the  first  time  measured  herself 
against  the  resources  of  a  great  kingdom,  as  in  the 
war  with  Carthage  she  for  the  first  time  measured 
herself  against  the  resources  of  a  great  commonwealth, 
Eome,  Carthage,  and  Macedonia  were  now  the  three 
great  powers  of  Europe,  and  Rome  had  to  strive 
against  both  the  other  two  at  once.  It  was  well 
indeed  for  Eome  that  Macedonia  never  put  forth  her 
full  strength  while  the  strength  of  Carthage  was  still 
unbroken.  As  it  was,  Hannibal  alone,  without  allies 
save  the  barbarians  whom  he  gathered  to  his  standard, 
after  the  fearful  losses  of  his  Pyrenaean  and  his 
Alpine  march,  was  able  to  win  every  pitched  battle 
that  he  fought,  and  to  bring  Eome  so  near  to  destruc- 
tion that  no  power  but  Eome  could  have  come  aJive 
out  of  the  trial. 

Never  in  truth  was  the  Eternal  Question  so  near 
to  its  solution,  so  near  to  a  solution  which  might 
have  stifled  the  life  of  Europe  for  ever,  as  when 
Hannibal  debated  in  his  mind  whether  he  should 
march  straight  from  the  field  of  Cannse  to  the  gates 
of  Rome.  It  was  a  moment  like  that  when  it  rested 
on  the  vote  of  the  polemarch  Kallimachos  whether 
the  thousands  of  Athens  should  meet  the  tens  of 
thousands  of  Persia  on  the  day  of  Marathon.  It  is 
not  for  us  to  say  whether  such  a  march  would  have 
turned  the  destiny  of  the  world  for  ever;  it  is 
enough  that  all  that  formed  the  life  of  Europe,  all 
that  was  to  form  the  life  of  Christendom,  seemed  at 


HANNIBAL.  63 

that  moment  to  hang  on  the  balance.  The  difficulty- 
is  fully  to  take  in  that  Hannibal  and  his  kinsfolk, 
the  great  house  and  the  greatest  of  its  sons,  were 
in  truth  fighting  in  the  same  cause  as  the  mere 
barbarian  destroyers  against  whom  the  strife  had  to, 
be  waged  at  other  stages  of  the  long  tale.  Yet  so 
it  is  ;  when  we  see  Kome,  with  her  citizens,  colonists^ 
and  allies,  holding  up  against  the  mercenaries  of 
Carthage,  when  we  contrast  the  votary  of  Jupiter 
with  the  votary  of  Moloch,  we  shall  soon  see  on 
which  side  it  was  the  abiding  interests  of  mankind 
truly  lay.  It  was  after  all  in  the  worthiest  of 
causes  that  the  first  of  cities  was  pitted  against  the 
first  of  men.  The  overthrow  of  Carthage  enabled 
Eome  to  go  on  to  the  overthrow  of  Greece ;  but  if 
Greece  was  to  have  a  conqueror,  it  was  well  that 
she  should  have  a  conqueror  who  could  become  a 
disciple  in  a  way  such  as  the  Phoenician  never  could 
be.  It  is  hard  to  name  Hannibal  along  with  Attila 
or  even  with  Abd-al-rahman,  yet  the  day  of  Zama,  or 
rather  the  long  endurance  which  made  the  day  of 
2ama  possible,  must  be  set  down  by  the  still  abiding 
world  of  Europe  as  a  great  salvation,  a  crowning 
mercy,  alongside  of  the  work  of  Aetius  and  Theodoric 
and  the  work  of  the  elder  Charles. 

How  it  was  that  Kome  and  Europe  lived  through 
such  a  trial,  what  were  the  special  causes  which 
gave  Eome  strength  to  bear  up  through  the  most 
fearful  of  dangers,  it  is  for  special  historians  of  Kome 
to  tell.  For  us  it  is  enough  that  Kome  came  forth  out 
of  the  struggle  mistress  of  the  West,  with  Carthage 


54  ROME  THE  HEAD  OF  EUROPE. 

spared  to  live  on  for  rather  more  than  fifty  yearsf 
as  a  Roman  dependency.  She  was  then  to  perish ; 
her  land  was  to  become  a  Eoman  province  ;  she  was 
herself,  after  a  hundred  years  of  desolation,  to  rise 
again  as  a  Eoman  city,  the  head  of  one  of  the 
greatest  of  Roman  lands,  the  seat  of  a  special  and 
abiding  form  of  Roman  life,  a  life  of  more  than 
seven  hundred  3'ears,  till  the  power  of  Rome  in 
Africa  gave  way  to  Semitic  invaders  more  terrible 
than  the  old  Phoenician.  The  fight  of  Zama  put  an 
end  to  the  long  and  wonderful  episode  of  Phoenician 
power  in  the  Western  seas ;  it  left  Rome  leisure  to 
go  on  with  her  work,  as  conqueror  and  teacher  in 
Western  Europe,  as  conqueror  and  disciple  beyond 
Hadria.  Whether  if  PhiHp  had  put  forth  the  full 
power  of  his  kingdom  and  its  allies,  he  and  Hannibal 
together  could  have  overthrown  Rome,  it  is  a  waste 
of  time  to  guess.  It  is  enough  for  us  to  know  and 
to  rejoice  that  so  it  was  not ;  Philip  failed  to  act 
with  Hannibal,  and  Rome  could  overthrow  Hannibal 
and  Philip,  each  in  his  turn.  The  first  Macedonian 
war  brought  Rome  into  the  thick  of  Greek  affairs. 
The  Greek  states  learned  all  of  a  sudden  what  Rome 
could  be  either  as  a  friend  or  as  an  enemy.  But  they 
were  slow  to  learn  how  truly  the  relation  of  either 
friend  or  enemy  of  Rome  was  only  a  step  to  the 
relation,  first  of  Roman  dependent,  and  then  of 
Roman  subject.  They  were  not  likely  to  learn  the 
lesson ;  neither  princes  nor  commonwealths  are  ever 
quick  in  learning  such  lessons.  The  Greeks  of  that 
day   no   more    dreamed    what    Roman    interference 


THE  FIRST  MACEDONIAN  WAR.  65 

meant  than  the  Greeks  of  a  hundred  and  fifty  years 
before  had  dreamed  what  Macedonian  interference 
meant.  No  prince  or  people  ever  does  in  such  cases 
fully  understand  what  is  coming.  But,  seeing  Rome 
had  been  on  the  whole  the  immediate  loser  in  the  first 
Macedonian  war,  the  Greeks  of  that  day  were  still 
less  likely  to  see  how  vastly  Rome  was  a  gainer  by 
engaging  in  any  Macedonian  war  at  all.  Men  who 
had  grown  up  as  leaders  in  the  several  Greek  states, 
who  were  used  to  look  on  Greece  and  the  neighbour- 
ing powers  as  forming  a  world  of  their  own,  a  world 
in  which  Roman  interference  was  as  little  looked  for 
as  interference  from  another  planet,  were  not  likely 
to  foresee  the  days  that  were  to  come  before  their 
own  lives  were  ended.  Philopoim^n  dreamed  not  yet 
of  days  when  no  Greek  statesman  dared  to  strike  a 
blow  or  speak  a  word  without  the  good  will  of  the 
barbarian  commonwealth  which  had  become  practi- 
cally the  mistress  of  them  all.  That  they  did  not 
foresee  those  days  was  no  special  short-sightedness  of 
Greeks  or  of  commonwealths ;  it  was  the  common 
short-sightedness  of  merely  human  statesmen,  who 
had  not,  like  their  critics,  the  means  of  profitting  by 
the  experience  of  ages  which  were  still  unborn. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  second  century  B.C.  the 
actual  possessions  of  Rome  were  small  indeed  com- 
pared with  what  they  were  at  its  ending.  When 
the  century  opened,  Rome  was  the  undoubted  head  of 
the  West ;  it  was  by  no  means  clear  that  she  was 
ever  to  become  head  of  the  East  as  well.  To  rule  that 
so  she  was  to  be  was  the  work  of  that  all-important 


56  ROME  THE  HEAD  OF  EUROPE. 

and  neglected  age.  At  its  beginning,  Rome  was 
head  of  Italy;  she  was  winning  back  the  dominion  in 
Cisalpine  Gaul  which  the  HannibaHan  war  had  cost 
her ;  but  she  had  no  provinces  of  her  own  separate 
winning  ;  she  had  only  the  lands  in  Sicily,  Sardinia, 
and  Spain  which  she  had  taken  over  from  Carthage, 
lands  which  in  Spain  at  least  needed  frequent  hard 
fighting  to  enlarge  or  even  to  keep.  In  Transalpine 
Gaul  she  had  as  yet  no  possessions ;  Massalia  was 
still  an  independent  and  specially  cherished  ally. 
In  Africa  Carthage  was  an  unwilling  dependency; 
Massinissa  of  Numidia  was  a  faithful  and  zealous 
vassal  king,  to  be  favoured  and  strengthened  as  long 
as  Carthage  was  allowed  to  live.  In  Eastern  Europe 
Home  had  indeed  begun  her  dominion  beyond  Hadria, 
a  dominion  as  yet  over  allies  and  not  over  acknow- 
ledged subjects.  But  it  was  a  dominion  which  did 
not  stretch  beyond  certain  points  of  coast  immediately 
opposite  to  the  Italian  peninsula.  Eome  had  ap- 
peared as  a  destroyer  in  more  than  one  island  and 
city  in  the  heart  of  Greece  ;  but  she  had  done  her 
work  of  havoc  in  fellowship  with  Greek  allies,  and,  if 
she  had  shown  herself  at  all  in  Greek  warfare,  it  was 
only  because  Philip  had  chosen  to  be  the  ally  of 
Hannibal,  but  not  to  be  his  ally  in  such  a  sort  as 
to  strike  at  Rome  on  her  own  ground.  In  the 
further  East  Pergamon  was  already  the  ally  of  Rome ; 
Attalos  and  Eumenes  were  to  be  as  Massinissa  so  long 
as  either  Macedonia  or  the  Seleukid  power  needed 
watching  on  behalf  of  Rome.  The  Seleukid  power 
was  as  yet  neither  friend  nor  enemy;  Egypt  was 


ADVANCE  OF  ROME  IN  THE  EAST.  57 

bound  to  Eome  by  a  friendship  of  some  standing,  but 
friendship  had  not  as  yet  brought  dependence  with  it. 
Let  us  look  only  twenty  years  later.  Rome  has 
not  increased  her  immediate  territory  on  the  eastern 
mainland  by  a  single  district  or  city.  But  Kephal- 
lenia  and  Zakynthos  have  joined  the  company  of 
Korkyra  and  Epidamnos  ;  Aitolia  has  entered  the 
formal  relation  of  Koman  dependence;  Macedonia 
has  sunk  to  it  as  the  penalty  of  warfare  with  Rome  ; 
she  has  risen  again  to  at  least  formal  independence  as 
the  reward  of  good  service  to  the  ruling  common- 
wealth. Beyond  her  small  possessions  in  Western 
Greece,  Rome  has  in  the  Eastern  world  no  dominion 
but  that  of  influence ;  but  through  that  dominion 
she  is  supreme.  The  vast  dominion  of  Antiochos,  the 
Great  King,  successor  alike  of  Cyrus  and  of  Alexander, 
has  been  cut  short ;  driven  back  beyond  Tauros,  he 
has  almost  withdrawn  from  the  Hellenic  world  ;  the 
lord  of  Asia,  seeking  for  a  moment  to  be  lord  of  Europe, 
has  sunk  to  be  lord  only  of  Syria  and  of  such  lands  east 
of  Syria  as  he  can  keep  back  from  the  grasp  of  the 
encroaching  Parthian.  In  his  stead,  royal  Pergamon, 
democratic  Rhodes,  a  crowd  of  smaller  powers,  ready 
to  receive  the  bounty  of  Rome,  have  parted  out  the 
solid  peninsula  of  Asia  among  them.  The  Roman 
Senate,  which  so  lately  sat  to  devise  means  by  which 
Rome  might  be  saved  from  the  grasp  of  Hannibal, 
now  sits  as  a  Court  of  International  Justice  for  the 
whole  civilized  world,  ready  to  hear  the  causes  of 
every  king  or  commonwealth  that  has  any  plaint 
against  any  other  king  or  commonwealth,  ready  even 


58  ROME  THE  HEAD  OF  EUROPE. 

to  bend  its  ear  to  the  voice  of  eveiy  party,  of  every 
man,  that  has  any  plaint  against  any  other  party  or 
any  other  man  within  the  smallest  commonwealth. 
The  Koman  Fathers  judge  the  causes  of  powers  which 
are  in  theory  the  equal  allies  of  Eome  ;  they  judge 
by  virtue  of  no  law,  of  no  treaty;  they  judge  be- 
cause the  common  instinct  of  mankind  sees  the  one 
universal  judge  in  the  one  power  which  has  strength 
to  enforce  its  judgements.  When  Kome  speaks,  all 
obey;  kings  fall  down  at  the  threshold  of  the  Senate- 
house,  as  entering  an  assembly  of  gods ;  they  keep 
themselves  humbly  within  the  line  that  the  Eoman 
rod  traces  round  them,  even  on  soil  that  they  have 
made  their  own.  Eome  in  truth  rules  from  the 
Hadriatic  to  the  Euphrates  no  less  than  from  the 
Ocean  to  the  Hadriatic  ;  but  save  in  the  old  Eoman 
land  which  is  her  own,  save  in  the  few  provinces 
which  she  has  taken  over  as  part  of  the  spoil  of 
Carthage,  her  power  is  still  everywhere  a  power  of 
influence  and  nowhere  of  direct  dominion. 

The  work  of  the  hundred  and  fifty  years  which 
were  to  pass  before  Eome  came  to  obey  the  rule  of  a 
single  man  was  largely  to  change  this  power  of  influ- 
ence into  a  power  of  direct  dominion,  in  a  word  to 
change  allied  and  dependent  states  into  subject  pro- 
vinces. Let  us  look  again  in  the  later  years  of  that 
same  second  century.  Italy  has  extended  herself,  if 
not  in  formal  language,  if  not  in  legal  right,  yet  in 
the  common  speech  of  men,  over  all  the  lands  within 
the  Alps.  Gaul  is  now  the  land  beyond  the  Alps 
where  Eome,  now  protector  of  Massalia,  has  won  a 


ROME  AND  HER  DEPENDENCIES.  59 

mighty  province,  a  province  binding  together  Italy 
and  Spain,  and  keeping  her  old  ally  as  it  were  in 
ward.  Spain  has  largely  become  a  Koman  land ;  it 
has  altogether  become  a  Koman  possession,  save  only 
those  mountain  districts  which  so  many  conquerors, 
each  in  turn,  have  found  it  so  hard  to  conquer. 
Africa  is  a  province  ;  Carthage  is  a  wilderness  ; 
Numidia  and  Mauretania  are  helpless  dependencies. 
East  of  the  Hadriatic,  not  a  few  lands  and  cities, 
Athens,  Sparta,  Ehodes,  Byzantium,  the  wise  confeder- 
ates of  Lykia,  still  keep  their  formal  independence. 
But  direct  dominion  has  widely  advanced ;  if  not 
as  yet  actually  the  rule,  yet  it  is  the  fate  which  has 
overwhelmed  the  greatest  powers ;  the  kingdom  of 
Macedonia  is  now  the  province  of  Macedonia ;  the 
kingdom  of  Pergamon,  so  lately  enlarged  out  of 
Seleukid  spoils,  is  now  the  province  of  Asia;  Achaia, 
with  Corinth  lying  waste,  is,  whether  formally  a  pro- 
vince or  not,  at  least  so  utterly  dependent  as  to  make 
the  question  as  to  its  political  state  a  question 
merely  formal.  Syria,  Egypt,  all  the  kingdoms  of 
Asia,  must  count  as  vassals  of  Eome.  If  absolute 
freedom  lives  on  anywhere  in  the  Mediterranean 
world,  it  is  where  freedom  is  the  shame  of  Eome 
rather  than  her  glory ;  the  independence  which  Ehodes 
and  Athens  keep  but  in  name  is  kept  in  all  its 
fulness  by  the  pirates  of  Crete  and  the  pirates  of 
Kilikia. 

So  the  headship  of  Eome  was  won  over  Italy  and 
.the  Mediterranean  world.     A  dominion  had  grown 


60  ROME  THE  HEAD  OF  EUROPE. 

up  of  wliicli  mankind  had  never  seen  the  like.  Na 
king  of  kings  had  ever  come  so  near  to  universal  rule 
as  this  city  of  cities.  And  now,  in  the  last  years  of 
the  second  century  and  the  early  years  of  the  first, 
came  the  question  whether  Eome  could  keep  what 
she'  had  won,  the  question,  we  might  almost  say, 
whether  Eome  could  keep  her  own  independent  being. 
New  powers  arose  to  dispute  her  claim  to  be  head  of 
the  West,  to  be  head  of  the  East,  to  be  head  of  her 
own  Italy.  Gains  Marius  came  down  from  his  car  of 
triumph  over  Jugurtha,  to  march,  in  a  new  consul- 
ship, in  new  consulships  crowded  one  upon  another, 
to  save  Gaul,  to  save  Italy,  to  save  Eome  herself, 
from  the  attacks  of  Teutonic  invaders  who  had 
come  before  their  time.  Small  are  the  remains  that 
Aquae  Sextise  can  show  to  remind  us  of  that  great 
deliverance ;  yet  we  look  up  to  the  Mount  of 
Victory,  and  feel  that  it  was  in  the  fates  that  the 
bones  of  our  kinsfolk  should  fence  in  Massaliot  vine- 
yards ;  the  day  was  not  yet  come  for  Gothia  and 
Eomania  to  be  freely  yoked  together  in  the  happy 
bride-ale  of  Narbonne.  The  day  of  Aquae  Sextise,  the 
day  of  the  Eaudian  fields,  confirmed  Eoman  headship 
in  the  West  for  five  hundred  years.  It  needed  a 
longer  struggle  with  Eastern  powers  strengthened 
by  the  arts  of  Greece — when  Greece  and  Asia,  allies 
and  subjects,  were  goaded  to  revolt  by  the  misdeeds 
of  the  ruling  city — to  secure  Eoman  headship  in  the 
East,  not  for  five  hundred  years  only,  but  for  thrice 
that  time.  And  nearer  still,  on  her  own  soil,  at  her 
own  gates,  within  her  own  future  walls,  Eome  had 


THE  TIME  OF  TRIAL.  61 

again  to  fight  for  life  and  death  against  Italian  enemies. 
Another  Pontius  had  come  from  the  Samnite  hills  to 
root  up  the  wood  that  sheltered  the  wolves  of  Italy. 
It  needed  the  happy  star  of  Lucius  Sulla,  it  needed 
the  last  eager  prayer  of  the  FeUx,  the  Epaphroditos,  to 
the  angered  gods  of  Greece,  to  keep  in  being,  not 
merely  the  lordship  over  Gaul  and  Asia,  but  the  very 
life  of  Kome  as  one  Italian  city  on  her  own  hills. 

Yet  vain  indeed  was  the  struggle  of  Cimbri  and 
Teutones,  of  Marsian  and  Samnite,  of  the  Pontic 
king  and  his  allies  in  Asia  and  in  Europe.  Rome 
came  forth  from  her  threefold  trial  the  undoubted 
mistress  of  all.  On  no  corner  of  Mediterranean  soil 
was  there  any  power  left  that  could  really  dispute 
her  will.  The  first  century  before  and  after  our  aera 
sufficed  to  gather  in  the  spoil.  Enemies  and  allies, 
independent  and  dependent,  were  to  be  changed  into 
subjects  ;  kingdoms  were  to  sink  to  provinces  ;  and, 
if  some  cities  once  more  than  sceptred  still  kept  the 
forms  of  freedom,  yet  chains  did  in  truth  clank  over 
them  when  the  Senate  and  People  of  an  independent 
commonwealth  dared  only  to  pass  such  decrees  as 
might  suit  the  pleasure  of  the  nearest  proconsul. 
Of  Rome's  two  great  rival  leaders,  one  was  to  spread 
her  dominion  to  the  Euphrates,  the  other  to  the 
Channel  and  the  Northern  Sea.  The  Syria  of  Gnaeus 
Pompeius  became  Rome's  richest  province ;  but  the 
land  of  old  Damascus  and  younger  Antioch  could 
never  become  a  Roman  land.  The  Gaul  of  Gains 
Caesar  became  a  Roman  land  indeed,  the  abiding 
home  of  Roman  hfe  and  Roman  culture,  the  land 


62  ROME  THE  HEAD  OF  EUROPE. 

that  had  the  praises  of  its  cities  sung  by  Ausonius  of 
Bordeaux  and  its  whole  life  painted  for  us  in  full  by 
the  pencil  of  Sidonius  of  Auvergne.  And  above  all 
things  the  possession  of  Syria  and  Gaul  gave  Borne 
a  new  position  and  laid  on  her  new  duties.  One 
aspect  of  the  second  century  before  our  aera  is  that 
the  barbarian  powers  of  the  East  are  again  threaten- 
ing. The  work  of  Alexander  and  Seleukos  seems 
half  undone.  Eome  had  weakened  the  arms  of  their 
successors  without  taking  their  calling  on  her  own 
shoulders.  As  it  was  with  the  pirates,  so  it  was  with 
the  Parthians ;  so  it  was  even  with  the  barbarians  to 
the  north  of  Macedonia.  During  the  time  when  the 
Greek  commonwealths  and  kingdoms  had  ceased  to  be 
really  independent,  but  when  they  had  not  yet  formally 
sunk  to  the  state  of  Koman  provinces,  neither  of  these 
frontiers  of  the  civilized  world  was  effectually  guarded. 
The  second  century  before  Christ  was  therefore  a 
great  age  of  barbarian  advance.  Again,  as  Mommsen 
puts  it,  the  world  had  two  lords.  A  power  grew  up 
on  the  eastern  border,  before  which  the  Macedonian 
kings  of  Syria  gave  way,  and  against  which  Eome 
herself  could  do  little  more  than  hold  her  own.  That 
Sulla  was  the  first  Eoman  who  had  direct  dealings 
with  the  Parthians  marks  the  course  of  things. 
Parthia  was  waxing  mighty  while  Eome  was  weaken- 
ing the  kingdoms  which  might  have  checked  the 
growth  of  Parthia.  The  new  barbarian  power  lived 
for  three  hundred  years  after  Sulla's  day  to  be  the 
equal  rival  of  Eome,  in  whose  strife  with  Eome  both 
sides  could  boast  of  victories  and  momentary  con- 


THE  BARBARIAN  REVIVAL.  63 

quests,  while  neither  could  boast  of  any  lasting 
weakening  of  its  rival.  And  a  day  came  when  the 
Parthians,  who  had  come  within  the  range  of  Greek 
influences,  whose  kings  boasted  themselves  as  (juXeX- 
\r]v€9,  had  to  give  way  to  more  vigorous  champions  of 
the  Asiatic  side  in  the  Eternal  Question.  In  a  long 
rivalry  of  four  hundred  years,  the  regenerate  Persian, 
strong  in  his  national  life  and  national  religion, 
remained  Pome's  truest  and  worthiest  rival.  Again 
each  power  felt  the  might  of  the  other  on  its  borders ; 
what  Gralerius  won  Jovian  had  to  give  back.  At  last, 
when  the  great  blow  was  coming  on  both  alike,  each 
sent  forth  as.  it  were  its  own  Hannibal  to  strike  at 
the  vitals  of  the  enemy.  Chosroes  encamped  within 
sight  of  Constantinople  ;  Heraclius  gave  law  to  the 
Persian  in  the  heart  of  his  own  realm.  One  might 
be  curious  to  know  how  this  great  side  of  the  world's 
history  looks  in  the  eyes  of  those  who  draw  the 
mystic  line  at  the  patriciate  of  Odowakar.  Julian  to 
be  sure  comes  before  the  line ;  but  the  writings  which 
record  the  deeds  of  Julian  are  a  sealed  book — unclass- 
ical,  I  believe,  not  of  the  golden  or  even  of  the  silver 
age.  As  for  Belisarius  and  Heraclius,  they  doubtless 
pass,  either  in  East  or  West,  for  Greeks  of  the  Lower 
Empire,  as  cowardly  and  effete  as  all  their  fellows. 

But  the  growth  of  the  Parthian  power,  continued, 
as  far  as  universal  history  is  concerned,  in  the  power 
of  the  regenerate  Peisian,  is  after  all  only  one  aspect 
of  a  chain  of  events  which  was  then  already  ancient 
and  which  still  abides.  It  did  but  put  the  Eternal 
Question  under  new  conditions  and  give  either  side 


64  ROME  THE  HEAD  OF  EUROPE. 

new  and  stronger  champions.  Meanwhile  in  vast 
regions  of  the  West,  in  one  memorable  corner  of  the 
East,  conditions  arose  which  were  absolutely  new. 
Pompeius,  conqueror  of  Syria,  caused  the  lands  of 
Rome  to  march  upon  the  Parthian ;  Caesar,  conqueror 
of  Gaul,  caused  the  lands  of  Rome  to  march  upon  the 
German.  One  gave  her  a  neighbour  who  could  be 
only  an  abiding  rival ;  the  other  gave  her  a  neighbour 
who  would  not  be  a  subject,  but  who  was,  in  the  ful- 
ness of  his  time,  to  enter  on  his  twofold  calling 
as  conqueror  and  disciple.  And  now  our  own  history 
begins,  the  history  of  the  Teutonic  race  in  its  three 
great  homes,  in  the  European  mainland,  in  the  great 
island  of  the  Ocean,  in  the  vaster  mainland  beyond 
the  Ocean.  I  need  tell  no  one  here  that  in  Caesar's  day, 
in  days  ages  after  Caesar,  the  history  of  ourselves,  as 
distinguished  from  the  history  of  our  future  home,  is 
to  be  sought  for,  not  by  the  Thames  and  the  Severn, 
but  by  the  Rhine  and  the  Weser.  We  have  not  very 
long  to  wait  before  one  line  of  Tacitus  will  reveal  the 
existence  of  the  Angle,  before  one  line  of  Ptolemy  wiU 
reveal  the  existence  of  the  Saxon.  But  as  yet  we 
stand  undistinguished  among  the  mass  of  our  brethren. 
Whatever  is  theirs  is  ours  also.  We  have  our  part  in 
the  great  deliverance  by  the  wood  of  Teutoburg; 
Arminius,  *'  liberator  Germaniae,'*  is  but  the  first  of 
a  roll  which  goes  on  to  Hampden  and  to  Washington. 
By  Rhine  and  Danube  Rome  at  last  found  her  Ter- 
minus; to  extend  it  to  Elbe  or  Eider  was  not  for 
Drusus  or  Germanicus,  but  for  the  first  Teuton  who 
wore  her  crown. 


WORK  OF  POM  PEJUS  AND  C^SAR.  65 

The  conquests  of  Caesar  then,  by  making  the 
Roman  and  the  German  neighbours,  neighbours  whose 
presence  could  not  fail  to  work  the  deepest  impress 
on  each  other,  opened  one  side  of  later  history.  The 
world  that  then  was,  the  world  of  Eoman  dominion 
tempered  by  Greek  influences,  had  now  nations  beside 
it  which  were  neither  subjects  nor  as  yet  rivals,  nations 
whose  mingling  with  that  elder  world,  in  many  forms 
and  at  many  stages,  was  to  call  into  being  the  world 
in  which  we  live.  But  the  Roman  and  Teutonic 
elements  out  of  which  the  world  of  modern  Europe 
and  European  colonies  was  to  be  formed,  were  not  the 
Roman  and  the  Teuton  in  the  first  state  in  which 
history  shows  them.  Their  fusion  did  not  come  till 
both  had  been  brought  under  a  common  influence. 
And  that  was  an  influence  whose  birthplace  carries  us 
back  again  from  the  conquests  of  Caesar  to  the  con- 
quests of  Pompeius,  from  the  conquests  of  Pompeius 
to  an  earlier  stage  of  the  Seleukid  power.  When  that 
power  was  weakened  on  the  great  day  of  Magnesia, 
its  weakness  was  not  merely  to  open  the  way  for  the 
advance  of  Parthia  from  the  East.  Native  powers, 
held  down  under  Persian  and  Macedonian  supremacy, 
sprang  into  new  life.  The  greatest  of  existing  Semitic 
powers  had  been  humbled ;  it  was  soon  to  be  wiped 
out ;  but  the  abiding  life  of  the  Semitic  race  showed 
itself  in  new  shapes,  in  one  shape  that  was  doomed  to 
be  more  abiding  than  the  power  of  Sidon  and  Carthage. 
That  shape  of  Semitic  influence  was  to  intertwine  itself 
so  closely  with  the  power  of  Rome  that  the  two  could 
never  more  be  rent  asunder.     Arab  lords  of  Damascus 

r 


66  ROME  THE  HEAD  OF  EUROPE. 

gave  a  foretaste  of  the  days  when  mightier  Arab  lords 
of  Damascus  should  reign  from  the  Indus  to  the  Ocean. 
Hebrew  lords  of  Jerusalem  called  up  the  memory  of 
the  days  when  mightier  Hebrew  lords  of  Jerusalem 
had  reigned  from  the  river  to  the  Great  Sea  westward. 
Hannibal  might  die  in  banishment;  his  city  might 
become  heaps  like  older  Nineveh  ;  but  men  speaking 
the  tongue  of  Hannibal,  though  they  worshipped  not 
the  gods  of  Hannibal,  were,  from  the  day  when 
the  holy  zeal  of  Mattathias  struck  down  the  renegade, 
to  form  one  of  the  great  moving  powers  in  all  future 
history.  If  the  Greek  was  to  enlighten  the  world,  if 
the  Eoman  was  to  rule  the  world,  if  the  Teuton  was 
to  be  the  common  disciple  and  missionary  of  both,  it 
was  from  the  Hebrew  that  aU  were  to  learn  the  things 
that  belong  to  another  world.  In  the  highest  teaching 
of  all,  Koman  and  Goth  had  to  become  the  disciples 
of  the  Jew,  but  of  the  Jew  speaking  only  by  the 
mouth  of  a  Greek  interpreter.  Before  the  Aryan 
world  of  Europe  could  truly  do  its  work,  it  had  to 
take  to  itself  a  Semitic  creed.  It  had  to  take  to  itself 
that  Semitic  creed  so  fully,  so  exclusively,  as  to  make 
it  by  adoption  the  creed  of  Europe,  to  make  it  before 
all  things  the  creed  of  Rome.  For  the  last  twelve 
hundred  years  the  Eternal  Question  has  taken  the 
shape  of  an  abiding  strife  between  two  creeds  alike 
of  Semitic  birth.  But  of  those  two  creeds  one  has 
become  Aryan  by  adoption  ;  the  younger  races  ac- 
cepted the  gift  which  the  elder  cast  aside;  as  the 
birthright  of  Edom  passed  to  Israel,  so  the  birthright 
of  Israel  passed  to  be  the  common  heritage  of  the 


ROME  AND  CHRISTIANITY.  67 

Greek,  the  Roman,  and  the  Teuton.  Rome  is  not 
Rome  in  all  her  fulness,  she  has  not  risen  to  the  true 
height  of  her  mission  in  the  world,  she  is  not  fully 
mistress  and  teacher  of  the  nations,  till  she  has  cast 
aside  her  old  gods  and  has  bowed  to  the  spiritual 
mastery  of  a  despised  sect  from  a  despised  corner  .of 
her  dominion.  The  miracle  of  miracles,  greater  than 
dried-up  seas  and  cloven  rocks,  greater  than  the  dead 
rising  again  to  life,  was  when  the  Augustus  on  his 
throne,  Pontiff  of  the  gods  of  Rome,  himself  a  god  to 
the  subjects  of  Rome,  bent  himself  to  become  the 
worshipper  of  a  crucified  provincial  of  his  Empire. 
The  conversion  of  our  own  folk,  the  conversion  of  any 
other  barbarian  folk  of  Europe,  was  no  marvel.  Where 
Rome  led,  all  must  follow,  Celt,  Teuton,  Slave,  each 
in  his  turn.  That  Christianity  should  become  the  re- 
ligion of  the  Roman  Empire  is  the  miracle  of  history; 
but  that  it  did  so  become  is  the  leading  fact  of  all 
history  from  that  day  onwards.  Explain  the  fact 
as  we  will,  Christianity  is  the  religion  of  the  Roman 
Empire,  and  it  is  hardly  more.  It  has  been  accepted 
by  every  land  which  either  became  part  of  the  Empire 
or  came  under  its  influence ;  that  is,  it  has  become 
the  creed  of  Europe  and  European  colonies.  Beyond 
those  limits  it  has  made  conquests,  but  they  have 
seldom  been  abiding ;  such  cases  as  Abyssinia  are 
exceptional,  and  after  all  they  come  of  Roman  in- 
fluence more  widely  spread  than  usual.  Christianity 
has  never  been  the  creed  of  any  great  power  beyond 
the  European  world.  The  great  nations  of  Asia  and 
Africa  have  either  kept  their  ancient  heathendom  or 

F  2 


68  ROME  THE  HEAD  OF  EUROPE. 

have  become  more  distinctly  antagonistic  to  the  faith 
of  Kome  by  embracing  the  faith  of  Arabia.  On  the 
other  hand,  no  nation  within  the  Eoman  pale  can  be 
said  to  have  fallen  away  from  Christendom.  The  folk 
of  Christian  lands  have  been  enslaved  or  swept  away ; 
renegades  have  been  many;  whole  tribes,  as  in  Albania, 
have  become  apostates,  but  whole  nations  never.  It 
would  have  sounded  strange  in  the  ears  of  Nero  or  of 
Trajan  to  be  told  that  a  day  would  come  when  the 
rule  of  Kome  could  be  spoken  of  as  the  joint  "  rule  of 
Christ  and  Caesar ;"  to  be  told  that  their  successors 
should  be  admitted  to  their  office  by  rites  borrowed 
from  the  sacred  books  of  the  Hebrew,  at  the  hands  of 
the  chief  of  the  sect  whose  votaries  they  sent  to  the 
lions  or  to  the  coat  of  fire.  It  was  in  a  very  deep  and 
living  sense  that  the  words  were  fulfilled  which  said 
that  the  kingdoms  of  the  world  had  become  the 
kingdoms  of  our  Lord  and  of  His  Christ.  But  their 
highest  fulfilment  of  all  was  when  the  Empire  of  the 
Cajsar  came  to  rejoice  in  its  Christian  style  of  Holy; 
when  the  Emperor,  Advocate  of  the  Universal  Church, 
deemed  it  a  further  honour  to  wear  the  garb  and  to 
share  in  the  office  of  Christian  priesthood  ;  when 
Dante  gave  his  genius  to  show  that  the  growth  of  the 
Koman  power  was  the  special  work  of  God,  and  that 
the  head  of  the  Eoman  power  was,  in  all  things 
earthly,  God's  immediate  Vicar  upon  earth.  A  theory, 
it  may  be  said,  which  no  age  saw  in  practice.  Truly 
so,  and  chiefly  because  the  power  of  Eome  split 
asunder,  because  the  inheritance  of  her  Csesar  was 
disputed  between  a  prince  by  the  Bosporos  and  a 


THE  HOLY  ROMAN  EMPIRE.  69 

prince  by  the  Eliine.  Those  days  are  still  far  from 
us ;  we  shall  reach  them  in  the  course  of  our  story ; 
it  is  enough  here  to  say  that  the  very  cleaving  to 
Roman  titles  and  traditions  on  the  part  of  powers  from 
which  all  that  was  truly  Roman  had  passed  away  was 
in  truth  the  most  speaking  witness  to  the  deep  and 
lasting  impress  on  men's  minds  which  had  been 
won  for  the  teaching  that  it  was  for  Rome,  and  for 
Rome  alone,  to  rule  and  judge  the  nations. 

The  change  from  the  commonwealth  to  the  Empire 
of  Rome  was  in  truth  a  gradual  process  by  which 
a  single  citizen  of  Rome,  charged  with  a  special 
commission,  allowed  to  unite  offices  and  powers  which 
were  designed  to  act  as  checks  on  one  another, 
changed,  step  by  step,  first  into  a  practical,  and 
then  into  an  acknowledged,  master  of  Rome  and  of 
all  that  obeyed  Rome.  That  change,  so  strikingly 
analogous  to  the  gradual  process  by  which  Rome 
herself  changed  from  influence  to  dominion,  is,  in  our 
oecumenical  survev,  of  far  less  direct  moment  than  it 
is  in  the  constitutional  history  of  Rome  herself.  We 
have  to  deal  with  the  oecumenical  headship  of  Rome, 
whatever  form  the  government  of  Rome  herself  may 
take.  But  the  indirect  oecumenical  results  of  the 
change  from  commonwealth  to  Empire  were  vast 
indeed.  To  the  Roman  city  the  change  was  political 
death ;  to  the  provinces  it  was  the  beginning  of  a  new 
life.  Under  the  Empire,  not  only  were  many  practical 
grievances  lessened  in  the  subject  lands,  but  the 
process  of  fusion  between  the  subject  lands  and  the 


70       ROME  THE  HEAD  OF  EUROPE. 

rilling  city  went  on  with  far  greater  speed  than  it 
could  go  on  as  long  as  the  Eoman  city  was  engaged 
in  the  vain  task  of  striving  to  unite  lihertas  at  home 
with  im^erium  in  other  lands.     The  Imperator  came 
because  the  imperium  was  there  to  call  for  him,  because 
for  the  subject  lands  one  master  was  less  grievous 
than  many.     It  was  not  without  good  reason  that  the 
provincials  raised  their  altars  to  more  than  one  prince 
for  whom  the  citizens,  also  not  without  good  reason, 
sharpened  their  daggers.    Under  the  Empire,  families, 
cities,  whole  lands  among  the   provinces,  were  ad- 
mitted, one  by  one,  to  the  full  rights  of  Eomans.    At 
last  the  decree  went  forth  of  which  we  have  already 
spoken,  the  decree  which  gave  to  all  of  them  the  rights, 
or  at  least  the  name,  of  Eomans.     From  that  day, 
most  fully  in  the  West,  more  fully  perhaps  than  we 
fancy  even  in  the  East,  an  artificial  nation  grew  up, 
a  nation  with  its  blood  mingled  with  the  blood  of 
every  stock  in  Europe,  but  a  nation  Eoman  in  name, 
Roman  in  feeling,  Eoman  in  culture,  and,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  the  merest  survivals,  Eoman    in   speech. 
Before  the  days  of  Teutonic  migration  began,  Eome 
had  done  her  work  in  the  West.     Gaul  and  Spain 
were  lands  no  less  Eoman  than  Italy.    If  the  Eoman 
of  Gaul  was  not  always  eager  to  fight  for  Caesar,  so 
neither  was  the  Eoman  of  Italy;   but  the  Eoman  of 
Gaul  was  as  little  incHned  as  the  Eoman  of  Italy 
either  to  join  the  barbarians  or  to  set  up  for  himself. 
I  speak  of  the  lands  as  wholes;  the  special  fortunes  of 
Britain  and  of  a  corner  of  Armorica  we  may  have 
other  occasions  to  think  over.     If  the  world  of  Europe 


THE  NEW  ROMAN  NATION.  71 

was  to  run  its  destined  course,  it  was  needful  that 
the  lands  into  which  the  Teutonic  conquerors  of  the 
mainland  were  to  make  their  way  should  be  thoroughly 
Eoman  lands,  lands  where  the  invaders  would  find 
that  fully  developed  Eoman  culture  which  was  need- 
ful for  the  future  of  mankind.  The  work  could  not 
have  been  done  if  the  lands  into  which  the  Goth  and 
the  Burgundian  entered  had  been  still  Iberian  and 
Celtic  instead  of  Eoman.  The  process  of  making 
them  Eoman  was  carried  on  more  swiftly,  steadily,  and 
thoroughly  under  the  Empire  than  it  could  ever  have 
been  under  the  commonwealth.  In  this  way,  without 
sharing  the'  fashionable  admiration  for  successful 
crime,  without  joining  in  the  base  and  shallow  sneers 
which  even  great  scholars  have  stooped  to  hurl  at 
patriots  whose  worth  soars  above  their  moral  level, 
we  can  still  see  that  the  overthrow  of  the  freedom  of 
the  Eoman  city  was  a  needful  step  in  the  progress 
of  the  Eoman  world.  It  was  one  stage  towards  that 
wedding  of  Gothia  and  Eomania  the  offspring  of 
which  is  the  world  in  which  we  live. 


LECTUKE    III. 

ROME  AND   THE  NEW  NATIONS. 

We  have  seen  Eome  rise,  step  by  step,  to  the 
headship  of  Latium,  the  headship  of  the  West,  the 
headship  of  the  Mediterranean  world.  At  most 
stages  of  her  course  her  progress  has  been  slow; 
at  one  stage  only  does  she  rise  to  a  new  position 
as  in  a  moment.  That  is  when,  having  been  checked 
on  her  Eastern  course  by  the  Hannibalian  war,  the 
city  that  had  overthrown  the  Eastern  masters  of  the 
West  sprang  at  once  to  the  headship  of  the  Eastern 
as  weU  as  of  the  Western  world.  The  power  which 
had  trodden  under  foot  the  sons  of  Thunder  was 
entitled  to  take  its  next  step  with  the  swiftness  of 
the  thunderbolt.  But,  once  head  of  the  Eastern 
Mediterranean,  with  her  Senate  once  established  as 
judge  in  all  causes  from  the  Hadriatic  to  the  Eu- 
phrates, Eome  was  in  no  hurry  to  exchange  her  rule 
of  influence  for  a  rule  of  acknowledged  dominion.  In- 
deed, if  her  later  hankering  after  provinces  had  begun 
sooner,  it  may  be  that  she  would  have  better  checked 
the  advance  of  the  lords  of  Parthia  and  Pontes.  As 
it  was,  it  was  by  slow  degrees  indeed  that  cities  and 
kingdoms  which  long  kept  a  nominal  freedom  were 
formally  brought  within  the  grasp  of  her  universal 
sovereignty.      And  as  the  forms  of  her  im^erium 


GROWTH  OF  THE  EMPIRE.  73 

grew  up  only  by  slow  degrees,  so  the  forms  of  her 
lihertas  died  out  only  by  slow  degrees.  Slowly  and 
stealthily  did  Eome  march  to  the  acknowledged 
sovereignty  of  her  own  world  ;  slowly  and  stealthily 
did  the  citizen  whom  Eome  placed  at  the  head  of 
her  commonwealth  march  to  the  acknowledged  sove- 
reignty of  Eome  herself  and  her  subject  lands.  It 
was  almost  at  the  same  moment  that  the  power  of 
the  Im^erator  and  his  army  finally  supplanted  the 
power  of  the  Prince,  the  Senate  and  the  People,  and 
that  all  the  free  inhabitants  of  the  E-oman  world 
were  admitted  to  the  rank  of  Eomans.  That  is,  they 
became  equal  subjects  of  the  Im^erator,  while  each 
man  among  them  who  could  wield  his  sword  with 
skill  and  good  luck  gained  the  chance  of  becoming 
Imperator  himself.  The  artificial  Eoman  nation,  the 
JRomani  of  the  West,  the  'Vaoixaioi  of  the  East,  was 
now  called  into  being.  By  the  next  step  the  master 
of  that  nation  avowed  his  mastery.  The  diadem  of 
Jovius  and  Herculius,  the  proud  style  of  the  Lords 
of  All,  the  bendings  of  the  knee,  the  whole  cere- 
monial which  surrounded  the  new  Augusti,  were  a 
contrast  indeed  to  the  simple  preeminence  of  the 
first  of  citizens,  the  highest  of  magistrates,  to  whom 
that  sacred  name  was  first  decreed.  Chief  of  a 
Eoman  nation,  Eoman  alike  on  the  Euphrates  and 
on  the  Ocean,  the  Emperor  was  in  no  sort  bound  to 
the  local  Eome  by  the  Tiber.  Shall  we  say  that 
Eome  had  been  swallowed  up  in  Eomania,  or  more 
truly  that  all  Eomania  had  become  Eome  '?  Emperors 
w^ere  now  as  much  at  home  at  Nikomedeia  and  at 


74  ROME  AND  THE  NEW  NATIONS. 

Antioch,  at  Milan  and  Eavenna,  at  York  and  Trier 
and  Aries  and  the  true  Vienna  by  the  Eh  one  as  they 
had  once  been  in  the  modest  regia  of  the  elder  Eome 
or  in  its  prouder  Septizonium.  No  wonder  that  in 
after  years  Emperors  were  found  no  less  at  home  at 
Ingelheim  and  Aachen  and  Gelnhausen,  at  Nikaia  and 
Thessalonica  and  Skoupi,  and  in  the  false  Vienna  by 
the  Danube.  But  the  chosen  servant  of  Jove  on  his 
throne  at  Nikomedeia  did  but  open  the  way  for  changes 
vaster  still.  A  man  born  in  Illyricum,  raised  to 
power  in  Britain,  schooled  in  Gaul  in  the  arts  of 
empire,  won  Eome  by  his  right  hand,  but  only  to  trans- 
plant the  very  life  of  Eome  to  a  more  abiding  seat  of 
power.  Diocletian,  first  of  the  avowed  lords  of  the 
Boman  world,  had  not  slept  for  many  years  in  his 
mausoleum  at  Spalato  before  a  New  Eome  had  arisen 
by  the  Bosporos,  before  the  temples  of  a  new  wor- 
ship on  the  hill  of  the  Vatican  and  in  the  palace  of 
the  Laterani  had  begun  to  threaten  the  dominion  of 
Jupiter  Optimus  Maximus  on  his  own  Capitol. 

The  New  Eome,  the  Bome  of  Constantine,  the 
city  of  Constantine,  the  city  of  Emperors,  the  j8a- 
aiXevovcra  of  the  Greek,  the  2'zarigrad  of  the  Slave, — 
more  proudly  still,  simply  the  City,  ^  '7r6}ii9,  the 
name  that  survives  in  the  Stamboul  of  her  alien 
lords — was  a  city  Christian  from  its  birth.  The 
Bome  of  Eomulus  remained  for  a  while  more  pagan 
than  any  city  of  the  Empire,  save  Athens  alone.  In 
its  new  seat  meanwhile  the  Empire  was  Holy  from 
the  beginning.  The  great  question  of  the  divided 
Empire  did  not  present  itself  till  ages  later.     In 


CONSTANTINOPLE.  75 

days  to  come  men  disputed  which  was  the  true 
Augustus ;  was  it  he  who  received  his  unction 
among  the  columns  of  Saint  Peter  in  the  Old  Eome 
or  he  who  received  it  beneath  the  dome  of  the  Divine 
Wisdom  in  the  New  ?  As  yet  the  oil  of  the  Old 
Covenant  had  not  been  poured  on  any  Imperial  head  ; 
and  though  two  or  three  Augusti  might  reign  side 
by  side,  the  Empire  was  not  held  to  be  thereby 
divided.  Yet  a  certain  preeminence  came  by  a  kind 
of  natural  selection  to  the  Emperors  who  reigned  in 
the  Eastern  seat  of  Empire.  In  the  days  of  transi- 
tion, the  true  middle  ages,  the  days  when  Koman 
and  Teuton  stood  side  by  side,  ready  to  be  fused, 
but  not  yet  fused,  into  the  compound  being  of  the 
modern  world,  every  cause,  every  accident,  tended  in 
every  way  to  make  the  Eastern  Eome  the  truest  and 
most  abiding  representative,  not  indeed  of  Eome's 
moral  influence,  but  of  Eome's  abiding  power. 

When  did  the  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Eoman 
Empire  begin  ?  The  clear  instinct  of  Gibbon  carried 
on  his  tale  to  the  fall  of  its  Eastern  branch ;  the 
formal  fall  of  its  Western  branch  he  lived  not  to  see. 
In  our  point  of  view  the  ages  of  the  so-called  decline 
of  the  Empire  are  the  ages  of  its  greatest  influence  ; 
the  political  decline  of  Eome,  the  moment  when  her 
strength  directly  as  a  power  began  to  fail,  might 
perhaps  be  placed  a  little  earlier  than  the  date 
chosen  by  that  great  master  of  us  all  whose  immortal 
tale  none  of  us  can  hope  to  displace.  Under  Trajan 
the   Empire  reached  its  greatest  territorial  extent. 


76  ROME  AND  THE  NEW  NATIONS. 

But  we  may  stop  and  ask  whether  conquests  Hke 
his  were  not  in  some  sense  a  sign  of  coming  weak- 
ness. The  second  century  of  our  sera  opens  with 
Trajan's  momentary  glories ;  before  that  century  is 
ended,  the  day  of  real  conquest  is  past.  Marcus 
keeps  his  watch  by  the  Danube  with  other  objects 
than  those  with  which  Drusus  had  kept  his  watch 
by  the  Bhine.  The  work  of  a  Eoman  prince  is  now, 
not  to  press  the  Eoman  Terminus  forward,  but  to 
keep  him  from  falling  back.  The  days  of  victories 
and  triumphs,  the  days  of  conquest  in  the  territorial 
sense,  are  still  far  from  being  past ;  but  from  Marcus 
to  Stilicho,  we  might  say  from  Marcus  to  Belisarius 
and  Heraclius,  to  Nik^phoros  and  John  Tzimiskes,  to 
the  Palaiologos  who  won  back  Constantinople  and 
the  Palaiologos  who  won  back  Peloponn^sos,  conquest 
commonly  meant  simply  the  recovery  of  a  dominion 
which  had  once  been  held  and  which  had  fallen 
away.  We  may  apply  the  rule  which  we  applied 
in  our  first  lecture.  When  the  Greek  had  to  drive 
back  the  Persian  from  Greek  soil,  when  the  Eoman 
had  to  drive  back  the  German  from  Eoman  soil,  it 
was  a  sign  that  the  greatest  days  of  each  people,  as 
far  as  greatness  of  territorial  dominion  is  concerned, 
had  passed  away. 

But,  as  in  the  Greek  case,  so  in  the  Roman,  the 
very  decline  of  territorial  dominion  marked  the 
beginning  of  a  newly  extended  moral  influence. 
By  the  days  of  Marcus  the  two  great  elements  of 
the  world  that  was  making  already  stood  face  to 
face.     The   tables  were  now   turned ;   the  German 


ROMAN  AND  TEUTON.  77 

was  the  invader ;  the  Eoman  stood  on  his  defence. 
Again  and  again  was  the  German  driven  back  from 
the  soil  of  Gaul  and  even  from  the  soil  of  Italy. 
Presently  days  came  when  he  could  no  longer  be 
driven  back,  days  when  it  was  oftentimes  wiser  to 
welcome  him  on  Koman  soil,  as  the  subject,  the  ally, 
the  soldier  of  the  Empire,  taught  to  guard  the  borders 
of  the  Empire  against  brethren  who  came  on  the 
same  errand  as  himself.  Warlike  Emperors  won 
triumphs  at  the  head  of  Teutonic  armies ;  un war- 
like Emperors  sent  forth  commanders  of  Teutonic 
blood  to  win  triumphs  for  them.  At  the  bidding 
of  such  commanders  Emperors  were  made  and  un- 
made ;  men  of  Teutonic  birth  became  consuls,  patri- 
cians, guardians  of  Imperial  sons-in-law ;  one  prize 
alone  was  forbidden ;  the  diadem  itself  was  not  as 
yet  to  rest  on  a  Teutonic  brow.  And  if  the  sove- 
reignty of  Eome  remained  in  Koman  hands,  so  it 
was  in  one  quarter  alone,  the  quarter  in  which  she 
had  seemed  to  make  the  greatest  advance,  that  the 
territorial  extent  of  the  dominion  of  Kome  was 
formally  cut  short.  The  Asiatic  conquests  of  Trajan 
had  passed  away  almost  with  Trajan's  self;  his 
European  conquest,  his  vast  Dacian  province,  last 
to  be  won  and  first  to  pass  away,  was  given  up  by  a 
soldier  of  Rome  hardly  less  illustrious  than  himself 
Aurelian  made  the  Danube  once  more  the  Roman 
frontier;  beyond  it  the  Goth  might  dwell  till  his 
day  came  to  march  at  will  through  the  three  great 
peninsulas  and  at  last  to  find  himself  a  throne  in  the 
most  western.     But  for  a  hundred  and  fifty  years 


78  ROME  AND  THE  NEW  NATIONS. 

after  the  surrender  of  Dacia,  fully  up  to  the  end  of 
the  fourth  century,  we  can  hardly  say  that  the 
borders  of  the  Empire  ever  formally  went  back.  The 
Empire  contained  crowds  of  Teutonic  settlers ;  we 
can  hardly  say  that  it  as  yet  contained  any  Teutonic 
settlements.  Whoever  dwelled  within  the  Koman 
frontier  was  either,  in  name  at  least,  a  subject  or 
soldier  of  Caesar,  or  else  he  was  an  enemy  marching 
to  and  fro  in  a  foreign  land.  The  Franks  already 
dwelled  in  their  distant  corner  of  Gaul ;  but  they 
dwelled  there  as  soldiers  of  the  Empire,  charged 
with  the  duty,  which,  if  they  sometimes  betrayed, 
they  sometimes  loyally  discharged,  of  keeping  the 
frontier  of  Eome  against  new  comers.  The  Goth 
himself,  marching  hither  and  thither  through  Greek, 
Italian,  and  Gaulish  lands,  holding  Eome  herself  to 
ransom,  keeping  at  last  his  jubilee  of  plunder  within 
her  walls,  was  not  always  the  formal  foe  of  her 
princes;  at  one  moment  he  accepted  honours  and 
commands  from  the  lawful  Augustus ;  at  another 
he  made  himself  the  friend  and  soldier  of  the  Empire 
by  setting  up  an  Emperor  of  his  own.  Alaric  him- 
self, in  all  his  marches,  all  his  sieges,  never  found 
abiding  rest  for  the  sole  of  his  foot ;  he  never  be- 
came the  acknowledged  territorial  master  of  a  single 
inch  of  Koman  soil.  But  before  he  had  gone  to  rest 
in  his  grave  beneath  the  waters,  before  the  Gothic 
trumpet  was  heard  at  the  Salarian  gate,  before  he 
entered  by  the  same  path  by  which  Brennus  had 
entered  well  nigh  eight  hundred  years  before,  the 
path  from  which  Hannibal  had  turned  away,  the  path 


THE  FIFTH  CENTURY.  79 

on  which  Pontius  of  Telesia  had  dealt  the  last  blow 
for  free  and  disunited  Italy,  before  that  day  of  fear 
and  wonder  in  the  annals  alike  of  the  waning  and  of 
the  rising  power,  another  act  in  the  great  drama  had 
begun.  Other  Teutonic  settlers  had  begun  to  estab- 
lish themselves  as  abiding  dwellers  on  Koman  soil, 
and  the  Goth  was  presently  to  follow  in  their  steps. 

We  are  now  landed  in  the  fifth  century  of  our 
sera,  the  century  which  beheld  the  earliest  germs 
of  the  nations  of  modern  Europe.  It  is  the  age 
which,  more  than  any  other,  answers  to  the  third 
and  second  centuries  before  our  aera.  Thev  answer 
to  one  another,  because  the  later  period,  to  a  great 
degree,  reverses  the  work  of  the  earlier.  The  former 
period  made  the  Eoman  Empire ;  the  latter  went  far 
to  unmake  it.  Never,  till  the  days  of  its  gradual 
dying  out,  did  it  come  so  near,  in  the  Western  lands 
at  least,  to  being  broken  in  pieces.  We  might  say 
in  truth  that  in  the  West  the  Empire  was  broken 
in  pieces  in  the  fifth  century,  but  that  it  was  largely 
put  together  again  in  the  sixth  by  a  reaction  from 
the  East.  For  the  first  aspect  of  that  age  is  that 
which  has  been  already  pointed  out,  the  fact  that,  while 
the  pohtical  power  of  Rome  is  thus  shivered  in  the 
West,  in  the  East  it  maintains  itself,  to  some  extent 
even  enlarges  itself.  The  Eastern  division  of  the 
Empire,  the  lot  of  the  successors  of  Arcadius,  is 
that  which  really  kept  up  the  unbroken  political 
traditions  of  Rome.  It  has  its  wars  and  its 
revolutions,  its  settings   up  and  puttings  down  of 


80  ROME  AND  THE  NEW  NATIONS. 

Emperors ;  it  even  sees  the  marching  to  and  fro  of 
Teutonic  armies.  But  all  seems  mild  compared  with 
the  turmoil  of  the  West.  The  war  with  the  Persian, 
ended  at  last  by  an  honourable  peace  which  abides 
for  a  hundred  years,  is  another  matter  from  the 
endless  struggle  with  the  German  on  every  frontier. 
The  occasional  revolts  at  Constantinople  do  not 
begin  till  the  second  half  of  the  century,  and  they 
pass  for  nothing  alongside  of  the  series  of  tyrants 
and  momentary  Emperors  which  disturbed  the  West 
during  nearly  the  whole  time.  The  Eastern  throne 
was  so  far  the  firmer  that  the  West  was  over  and 
over  again  willing  to  accept  an  Emperor  of  his 
Eastern  colleague's  choosing.  Above  all,  the  East- 
ern provinces  were  not  parted  out  among  Teutonic 
rulers.  The  Eastern  movements  of  Alaric  hardly 
reach  into  the  fifth  century,  and  the  marchings  to 
and  fro  of  the  two  Theodorics  at  a  later  time  were 
a  trifle  compared  with  the  great  invasions  which 
parted  out  the  West  into  Teutonic  kingdoms.  It  is 
these  which  are  the  real  work  of  the  fifth  century. 
At  its  beginning,  the  Empire,  with  the  boundaries 
of  Valentinian  hardly  touched,  is  divided  between 
the  sons  of  Theodosius  as  Imperial  colleagues.  At 
its  end,  a  single  Emperor  reigns  at  Constanti- 
nople ;  but  the  whole  West,  with  Eome  itself,  has 
fallen  away  from  his  practical  dominion,  and  the 
greater  part  has  passed  from  even  his  nominal 
supremacy.  The  power  of  Kome  lives  on  only  in 
those  Eastern  lands  into  which  she  made  her  way 
when  her  power  in  the  West  was  assured   by  the 


WOIiK  OF  THE  FIFTH  AND  SIXTH  CENTURIES.    81 

weakening  of  the  power  of  Carthage.  She  has  lost 
the  fruits  of  the  fights  of  Metaurus  and  of  Zama, 
of  the  leaguer  of  New  Carthage  and  the  leaguer 
of  Syracuse ;  she  keeps  the  fruits  of  the  day  of 
Kynoskephalai  and  the  day  of  Pydna,  the  day  of 
Thermopylai  and  the  day  of  Magnesia.  The  genius 
of  Borne,  banished  from  his  elder  seat  by  the  Tiber, 
is  watching  from  his  newer  seat  by  the  Bosporos 
till  the  old  home  can  be  won  back  again. 

The  two  ages  which  we  have  thus  casually 
brought  together,  the  age  in  which  the  East  was 
won  for  Borne  and  the  age  in  which  the  West  fell 
away  from  Borne,  suppty,  as  has  been  ah-eady  hinted, 
some  most  instructive  points  of  comparison  and  con- 
trast. The  two  ages  may  be  compared  and  contrasted 
from  two  points  of  view,  one  as  regards  the  breaking 
up  of  the  Boman  power,  the  other  as  regards  the 
formation  of  the  Teutonic  powers  which  so  largely 
took  its  place.  We  may  compare  the  way  in  which 
the  Boman  power  was  formed  and  the  way  in  which 
it  fell  in  pieces.  We  may  also  compare  the  way  in 
which  the  Boman  power  was  formed  and  the  way 
in  which  the  powers  were  formed  which  took  its 
place.  We  will  begin  with  the  former  comparison, 
with  the  analogy,  as  a  pohtical  study,  between  the 
way  in  which  the  power  of  Bome  came  together  and 
the  way  in  which  it  spht  asunder.  As  that  power 
emphatically  was  not  made  but  grew,  so,  no  less  em- 
phatically, it  was  not  abolished  but  died  out.  That 
is  of  course  in  those  lands  where,  as  in  Gaul  and  in 
the  greater  part  of  Spain,  it  can  be  said  to  have 

G 


82  ROME  AND  THE  NEW  NATIONS. 

ever  died  out.  In  any  land  that  came  under  the  power 
of  Rome,  that  power  was  established  step  by  step ; 
so  in  any  land  that  fell  away  from  the  power  of 
Rome,  that  power  vanished  away  step  by  step.  The 
intermediate  state  between  complete  independence 
and  complete  subjection,  the  various  stages  of  al- 
liance and  dependence,  play  a  great  part  alike  in 
the  work  of  welding  together  and  in  the  work  of 
spHtting  asunder.  Rome  has  again  her  allied  and 
vassal  kings,  in  some  cases  even  her  alhed  and 
vassal  commonwealths.  They  passed  from  subjec- 
tion to  complete  independence  by  the  same  path  by 
which  they  had  passed  from  independence  to  com- 
plete subjection.  But  in  such  cases  it  makes  a  wide 
difference  in  which  direction  men's  faces  are  turned. 
The  formal  relation  may  be  the  same ;  the  real 
position  is  different.  In  the  elder  case  alliance  is 
a  decent  name  for  subjection  which  the  time  has 
not  yet  come  to  press  to  the  extreme  point.  In  the 
later  case  alliance  is  a  decent  name  for  independence 
which  the  time  has  not  yet  come  formally  to  ac- 
knowledge. Hier6n,  Massinissa,  Eumends,  Prousias, 
were  kings  in  alliance  with  Rome ;  so  were  Alaric, 
Ataulf,  Odowakar,  perhaps  Chlodowig  liimself.  Two 
things  mark  the  difference  between  the  ally  who  is 
marching  towards  subjection  and  the  ally  who  is 
marching  towards  perfect  independence.  The  ally 
of  old  dwells  outside  the  acknowledged  Roman  do- 
minions; his  land  is  destined  to  be  one  day  a  part 
of  them,  but  it  is  not  so  as  yet.  If  he  receives 
titles  and  honours  from  Rome,  they  are  the  titles  of 


GROWTH  AND  BREAKING  UP.  83 

kingship  in  his  own  realm.  A  consulship  of  Hieron, 
an  army  of  Roman  citizens  or  Italian  allies  marching 
under  the  command  of  Massinissa,  would  have  seemed 
strange  indeed.  The  ally  of  the  later  day  dwells 
within  the  Roman  dominion ;  he  receives  certain 
Roman  lands  by  the  tenure  of  defending  Roman 
lands  generally  against  fresh  invaders.  Already 
king  of  his  own  people,  he  adds  to  the  titles  of 
barbarian  kingship  the  titles  of  Roman  civil  or 
military  office ;  he  is  consul,  patrician,  magister 
militum.  Above  all,  the  ally  of  old,  weaker  ally 
oi  a  stronger  power,  never  draws  his  sword  against 
his  mightier  ally,  unless  indeed,  in  some  wild  moment 
of  hope  or  of  despair,  he  seeks  to  win  back  the 
independence  which  he  finds  that  he  has  lost,  and 
thereby  only  hastens  his  subjection.  The  ally  of 
the  later  day,  in  very  truth  stronger  ally  of  a 
weaker  power,  freely  draws  his  sword  against  the 
lord  whom  he  professes  to  serve,  whenever  so  to  do 
seems  the  readiest  way  to  win  from  him  new  grants 
and  honours.  The  contrast  is  marked  indeed;  yet 
the  analogy  is  clear  also.  Rome  did  not  win  her 
provinces  by  suddenly  annexing  lands  which  were 
wholly  independent ;  she  did  not  lose  her  provinces 
by  having  them  suddenly  torn  away  from  her  sub- 
stance to  form  at  once  some  wholly  separate  power. 
In  both  cases  the  same  formally  intermediate  stage 
was  gone  through,  the  stage  of  alliance,  dependence, 
vassalage,  whatever  name  we  choose  to  give  to  it.  It 
was  step  by  step  that  the  world  became  Roman ;  it 
was  step  by  step  that  it  ceased  to  be  so. 

G  2 


84  ROME  AND  THE  NEW  NATIONS. 

And  it  is  a  striking  thought  that,  as  far  as  we  can 
see,  the  two  processes,  of  absorption  in  the  Boman 
body  and  of  separation  from  the  Eoman  body,  were 
actually  going  on  at  the  same  time.     I  have  hinted 
at  this  already.     It  is  certain,  and  it  is  one  of  the 
facts  in  all  history  which  makes  us  most  pause  and 
think,  that  the  work  of  incorporation  of  Greek  states 
into  the  Eoman  body  which  began  beyond  Hadria  in 
the  later  days  of  the  third  century  before  Christ  and 
which  had  begun  long  before  in  Italy  and  Sicily,  was 
by  no  means  over  in  the  fifth  century  after  Christ.   The 
history  of  Cherson  alone  shows  it.     That  distant  and 
long-lived  outpost  of  Greece  and  ally  of  Eome  can- 
not be  looked  on  as  fully  passing  from  alliance  inta 
subjection  till  the  ninth  century  had  run  a  good  part 
of  its  course.     The  work  which  began  when  Korkyra, 
Apoll6nia,  and  Epidamnos  became  Eoman  allies  was 
not  ended  till  the  Eoman  power  was  divided  for 
ever,  and  till  a  Frank  Caesar  reigned  in  the  West. 
The  geographical   position  of  Cherson  secured  her 
a  practical  freedom ;  to  bring  her  into  bondage  would 
have  needed  an  exertion  of  the  full   power  of  the 
Empire.    But  the  relation  which  Cherson  could  really 
keep  was  for  ages  the  formal  relation  of  a  crowd  of 
cities  whose  liberties  could  be  at  any  moment  trampled 
under  foot  by  the  nearest  proconsul.     When  were  all 
these  free  cities,  whose  rights  Trajan  respected,  each  a 
little  San  Marino  with  the  Eoman  Empire  surrounding 
it,  formally  annexed  to  that  Empire  ?    Or  were  they 
ever  formally  annexed  at  all  ?    Can  any  man  tell 
the  last  day  of  that  Athenian  commonwealth  which 


SLOW  INCORPORATION  OF  THE  ALLIES.         85 

numbered  Hadrian  among  its  archons  and  Constan- 
tine  among  its  generals  ?  What  if  the  Senate  and 
People  of  Athens  still  went  on  in  their  old  home  after 
Honorius  had  striven  to  gather  together  at  Aries 
something  like  a  Senate  and  People  of  Southern 
Gaul  ?  Most  likely  there  is  no  date  to  be  fixed 
in  this  and  in  a  crowd  of  other  cases.  The  old  forms, 
the  old  feelings,  died  out  so  gradually  that  it  would 
be  impossible  to  say  when  the  dependent  common- 
wealth finally  changed  into  the  municipal  town. 
When  Theodoric  was  putting  out  edicts  for  Goths 
and  Komans  in  Italy,  Greek  Senates  and  assemblies 
in  Asia  may  still  have  been  passing  decrees  in  ancient 
form.  One  thing  is  plain ;  'svhen  Justinian  shut  up 
the  University  of  Athens,  the  General,  successor  of 
Periklds,  who  acted  as  its  Chancellor,  must  have  found 
the  more  part  of  his  duties  slip  away  from  him. 

But  if  the  fifth  century  was  for  the  Eoman  power 
a  time  of  dying  out  or  of  splitting  asunder,  for  the 
Teutonic  settlers  in  the  Eoman  lands  it  was  beyond  all 
other  ages  the  time  of  birth  and  growth.  And  here 
comes  in  our  other  side  of  comparison  and  contrast. 
The  process  of  Eoman  conquest  in  the  East,  if  it  has 
very  many  points  of  unlikeness  to  the  process  of  Teu- 
tonic conquest  in  the  West,  has  also  some  points  of 
likeness.  In  each  case  a  less  cultured  people  made 
a  political  conquest  of  a  people  more  advanced  than 
themselves.  And  in  neither  case  did  the  conquest  carry 
with  it  any  great  destruction  or  displacement  of  the 
older  inhabitants,  or  any  sweeping  away  of  their  laws, 
customs,  or  language.     A  new  people  came  in  and 


86  ROME  AND  THE  NEW  NATIONS. 

set  up  some  new  laws  and  customs  alongside  of  the 
old.  Only  in  the  Roman  case  we  can  hardly  say 
that  a  new  people  did  come  in.  Many  Romans 
dwelled,  for  public  or  private  ends,  in  Greece  and 
Asia ;  some  doubtless  even  settled  there  ;  but  there 
was  not,  even  in  Roman  colonies  like  Corinth,  any  real 
Roman  settlement  like  the  Teutonic  settlements  in 
Gaul,  Spain,  and  Africa.  Still  in  both  cases  the  con- 
quered led  captive  the  conquerors.  The  Greek  East 
received  a  certain  Roman  infusion,  but  it  remained 
Greek.  The  Roman  West  received  a  far  greater 
Teutonic  infusion ;  but,  on  two  sides  at  least,  those 
of  religion  and  language,  it  remained  Roman. 

In  other  words,  the  Roman  conquest  of  the  Greek 
East,  being  unaccompanied  by  any  real  settlement  in 
the  conquered  lands,  did  not  lead  to  the  growth  of  a 
new  nation.  The  Greek  nation,  in  the  sense  in  which 
we  long  ago  defined  it,  the  artificial  Greek  nation 
which  grew  out  of  Greek  colonization  and  Macedonian 
conquest,  passed,  through  the  stages  of  dependence 
and  subjection,  to  the  citizenship  of  Rome,  such  as 
the  citizenship  of  Rome  had  then  become.  From  that 
day  the  Greek  was  entitled  to  the  Roman  name,  and 
a  time  at  last  came  when  Greek  and  Roman  came  to 
mean  the  same,  when  the  Greek  was  the  only  sur- 
viving political  representative  of  the  Roman  name. 
But  the  name  'Vwixalo^  on  the  lips  of  a  Greek  never  ex- 
pressed the  same  real  change  which  was  expressed  by 
the  name  Romanus  on  the  lips  of  a  Gaul.  Its  meaning 
was  purely  poHtical.  The  Greek,  heir  of  the  most 
perfect  form  of  human  speech,  never  cast  aside  that 


''ROMANS"  IN  THE  EAST.  87 

speech  for  what  he  deemed  the  barbarous  dialect  of 
his  conqueror ;  he  did  but  admit  a  crowd  of  Latin 
technical  terms  into  his  official  language,  witnesses 
each  of  them  that  Greek  had  again  supplanted  Latin  as 
the  official  language  of  the  Koman  Empire  of  the  East. 
The  Gaul  meanwhile  could  not  indeed  exchange  his 
Celtic  forefathers  for  old  patricians  or  plebeians  of 
the  Koman  hills  ;  but  in  everything  short  of  actual 
blood  he  became  as  thoroughly  Eoman  as  if  he  had 
come  of  the  stock  of  Fabii  or  Licinii.  He  spoke  the 
tongue,  he  adopted  the  ways,  of  Eome ;  long  after 
the  thought  of  Koman  nationality  in  any  political 
sense  had  passed  away,  when  he  had  long  learned  to 
acquiesce  in  the  dominion  of  his  Frankish  conqueror, 
when  Kome  and  what  clave  to  her  had  become  to 
him  a  foreign  power,  the  Prankish  conqueror  was  still 
as  much  in  his  eyes  the  barbarian  and  himself  the 
Koman  as  when  Chlodowig  went  forth  to  battle  with 
Syagrius. 

We  have  said  that  it  was  the  fifth  century  which 
beheld  the  first  germs  of  the  nations  of  modern 
Europe.  We  ruled  that,  if  modern  history  must  have 
a  definite  beginning,  the  most  convenient  beginning 
for  it  is  the  great  Teutonic  invasion  of  Gaul  in  the  year 
407.  Yet  the  nations  of  modern  Europe  do  not  spring 
from  the  nations  which  then  crossed  the  Khine,  or 
from  any  intermixture  between  them  and  the  Romans 
into  whose  land  they  made  their  way.  The  nations 
which  then  crossed  the  Khine  were  the  Vandals, 
Suevians,  and  Alans.  Who  were  the  Alans,  who  play 
a  great  part  in  Spain  for  a  moment  and  a  small 


88  ROME  AND  THE  NEW  NATIONS. 

part  in  Gaul  for  a  somewhat  longer  time  1  Most 
likely  they  were  not  Teutonic  at  all  in  their  origin, 
but  had  been  more  or  less  Teutonized  by  loDg  con- 
tact with  Teutonic  nations.  There  may  be  a  few 
drops  of  Alan  blood  in  the  mixed  nationalities  of 
Gaul  and  Spain  ;  but  the  Alan  assuredly  forms  no 
abiding  or  visible  element  in  those  lands  ;  the  nation 
passes  away  from  history  before  the  fifth  century 
is  over.  Neither  did  their  undoubtedly  Teutonic 
comrades,  Vandal  and  Suevian,  found  any  abiding 
settlements  in  Gaul,  or  contribute  any  visible  element 
to  the  nationality  of  France,  Aquitaine,  or  Burgundy. 
In  fact  none  of  these  nations  made  any  real  settle- 
ments in  Gaul ;  Gaul  was  to  them  simply  the  high  road 
to  Spain.  There  they  did  settle,  though  the  Vandals 
soon  forsook  their  settlement,  and  the  Alans  were  soon 
rooted  out  of  theirs.  The  Suevian  kept  his  ground 
for  a  far  longer  time  ;  we  may,  if  we  please,  look  on 
him  as  the  Teutonic  forefather  of  Leon,  while  we  look 
on  the  Goth  as  the  Teutonic  forefather  of  Castile. 
Here  we  have  touched  one  of  the  great  national 
names  of  history;  the  Goth,  like  the  Frank,  plays 
quite  another  part  in  Western  Europe  from  the  Alan, 
the  Suevian,  and  the  Vandal.  And  yet  he  has  not 
played  the  same  part  as  the  Frank.  Several  lands 
in  Europe  have  at  one  time  or  another  borne  the 
name  of  GotTiia — I  trust  none  needs  the  warning  that 
they  are  to  be  looked  for  in  Gaul  and  Spain,  or  far 
away  in  Grim  Tartary,  not  in  the  islands  or  on  the 
mainland  of  the  Baltic.  But  no  land  has  kept  that 
name  down  to  modern  times.     But  two  lands,  rather 


THE  INVASION  OF  407  A.D.  89 

two  fragments  of  one  greater  land,  still  keep  the  name 
of  Fr  and  a,  and  the  Prankish  name,  with  the  natural 
changes  on  modern  lips,  has  become  the  name  of  one 
of  the  foremost  of  modern  nations. 

Now  both  Franks  and  Goths  had  passed  into  the 
Empire  long  before  the  invasion  of  407.  One  branch 
of  the  Franks,  as  we  have  already  hinted,  was 
actually  settled  on  Eoman  lands,  and,  as  Koman 
subjects,  they  did  their  best  to  withstand,  the  great 
invasion.  What  then  makes  that  invasion  so  marked 
an  epoch  1  It  may  be  argued  that  the  nations  which 
took  a  part  in  it  are  not  those  which  play  any  great 
and  abiding  part  in  European  history — the  Vandals, 
great  for  a  season,  are  isolated,  and  are  great  only  for 
a  season  ;  the  great  and  abiding  part  is  played  by 
the  nations  which  were  in  the  Empire  before  they 
came.  The  answer  is  that  the  invasion  of  407  not 
only  brought  in  new  elements,  but  put  the  existing 
elements  into  new  relations  to  one  another.  Franks 
and  Goths  put  on  a  new  character  and  begin  a  new 
life.  The  Burgundians  pass  into  Gaul,  not  as  a 
road  to  Spain,  but  as  a  land  in  which  to  find  many 
homes.  They  press  down  to  the  south-eastern  corner 
of  the  land,  while  the  Frank  no  longer  keeps  himself 
in  his  north-eastern  corner,  while  in  the  south-west 
the  Goth  is  settled  as  for  a  while  the  liegeman  of 
Csesar,  and  in  the  north-west  a  continental  Britain 
springs  into  being.  Here  in  truth  are  some  of  the 
chiefest  elements  of  the  modern  world,  and  though 
none  of  them  are  among  the  nations  that  crossed 
the    Ehine    in   407,   yet    the    new  position    taken 


90  ROME  AND  THE  NEW  NATIONS. 

by  all   of   them  is  the  direct  consequence  of  that 
crossing. 

In  this  way,  in  Gaul  and  Spain  at  least,  the  joint 
Vandal,  Alan,  and  Suevian  invasion  is  the  beginning 
of  the  formation  of  the  modern  nations,  though  the 
invading  nations  themselves  form  no  element  in  the 
later  life  of  Gaul  and  only  a  secondary  element  in  the 
lat^r  life  of  Spain.  The  later  life  of  these  lands,  and 
that  of  Italy  also,  has  sprung  of  the  settlement  of 
Teutonic  nations  in  a  Eoman  land,  and  of  the  mutual 
influences  which  Eoman  and  Teuton  have  had  on 
one  another.  Koman  and  Teuton  lived  side  by  side, 
and  out  of  their  living  side  by  side  has  gradually 
sprung  up  a  third  thing  different  from  either,  a 
thing  which  we  cannot  call  either  Koman  or  Teutonic, 
or  more  truly  a  thing  which  we  may  call  Eoman 
and  Teutonic  and  some  other  things  as  well,  accord- 
ing to  the  side  of  it  which  we  look  at.  This  third 
thing  is  the  Eomance  element  in  modern  Europe, 
the  Eomance  nations  and  their  Eomance  tongues. 
Their  birth,  perhaps  rather  the  appearance  of  their 
first  germs,  comes  in  the  fifth  century;  we  do  not  see 
them  in  their  fulness  till  ages  afterwards;  but  it  is 
then  that  the  causes  out  of  which  they  sprang  began 
to  work.  Unluckily  it  is  hard  to  find  a  land  in 
which  the  elements  of  the  fifth  century  have  been 
allowed  to  run  their  natural  course  undisturbed  to 
this  day.  Italy  had  no  chance.  Had  not  the  system  of 
Theodoric  been  violently  broken  up,  first  by  the  Im- 
perial reconquest,  then  by  the  Lombard  invasion,  Italy 
might  have  supplied  the  best  of  all  studies  of  the  way 


THE  ROMANCE  NATIONS.  91 

in  which  a  Eomance  people  with  a  Eomance  speech 
might  grow  up  on  the  very  soil  of  Kome  herself. 
Spain  supplied  a  more  hopeful  field ;  the  position  of 
the  country  hindered  later  Teutonic  settlements ;  but 
the  Saracen  conqueror  came  before  West-Gloth  and 
Koman  had  been  thoroughly  fused  into  one  people. 
Hence  came  the  distinctive  character  of  Spanish  his- 
tory, the  history  of  a  people  whose  national  life  was 
formed  by  the  need  laid  upon  them  of  daily  working 
out  the  Eternal  Question  in  its  sternest  shape. 
Northern  Gaul,  unlike  Spain  and  Italy,  lay  open  to 
continued  reinforcements  of  the  Teutonic  element 
within  it.  Francia  was  an  unbroken  land  lying  far 
away  on  both  sides  of  the  Ehine,  and  the  division 
into  Austria  and  Neustria  forestalls  the  later  division 
into  Francia  Teutonica  and  Francia  Latina.  The 
rise  to  power  of  the  Austrasian  Mayors  was  almost  as 
much  a  Teutonic  conquest  of  a  Latin  land  as  had 
been  the  first  conquest  by  Chlodowig,  and  the  settle- 
ment of  the  Normans  in  the  tenth  century  brought 
in  another  Teutonic  element  in  one  part  of  the  land. 
France  then,  in  the  narrower  sense  of  that  name, 
differs  from  Spain  and  Italy  in  the  presence  of  these 
later  Teutonic  elements ;  but  in  Aquitaine  and  Pro- 
vence they  had  little  force ;  it  is  there,  rather  than 
anywhere  else,  that  the  normal  result  of  the  move- 
ments of  the  fifth  century  may  be  best  studied.  In 
the  modem  world  of  all,  where  those  South-Gaulish 
lands  have  helped  to  make  up  the  great  nation  of 
modem  France,  it  is  undoubtedly  in  that  French 
nation  that  we  can  best  study  the  threefold  elements 


92  ROME  AND  THE  NEW  NATIONS. 

of  a  Romance  people.  The  prse-Roman,  the  Eoman,  the 
Teutonic,  elements  are  all  there ;  the  whole,  as  a 
whole,  is  none  of  the  three,  but  the  result  of  their 
fusion ;  but  the  whole,  looked  at  from  special  sides 
only,  may  well  be  called  by  any  name  of  the  three. 
The  blood  must  be  mainly  Celtic — in  the  south 
Iberian  and  Ligurian — but  with  some  Roman  and 
some  Teutonic  infusion.  The  speech  is  Latin,  but  with 
a  larger  Teutonic  infusion  than  would  be  thought  at 
first  sight.  The  political  history  is  that  of  a  Teutonic 
kingdom,  but  a  kingdom  modified  by  planting  its 
Teutonic  kingship  among  the  Latin-speaking  folk  of 
an  originally  Celtic  land.  The  elements  are  fused 
into  a  whole ;  yet  they  still  stand  side  by  side ;  we 
cannot  say  that  the  Frank  assimilated  the  Roman  or 
that  the  Roman  assimilated  the  Frank.  The  Frank 
learned  the  speech  of  the  Roman  ;  but  in  learning  it 
he  modified  it,  and  he  gave  it  his  own  name.  The 
modem  Frenchman  is  neither  Roman  nor  Frank ;  he  is 
rather  the  outcome  of  the  settlement  of  the  two  in  a 
land  in  which  elements  earlier  than  either  have  not 
been  without  their  influence  on  both. 

The  mention  of  the  earlier  elements  in  Gaul,  ele- 
ments earfier  than  either  Roman  or  Teuton,  suggests 
yet  another  analogy  between  the  age  in  which  the 
Roman  power  was  formed  and  the  age  in  which  it  was 
broken  in  pieces.  The  Roman  was  so  far  from  dis- 
placing the  Greek  tongue  or  Greek  life,  wherever  he 
found  them  really  established,  that  he  became  in 
some  sort,  not  only  their  disciple,  but  their  mis- 
sionary.  Wherever  the  Roman  went,  he  carried  some 


ANALOGIES  IN  EAST  AND  WEST.  9» 

measure  of  Greek  influences  with  him.  The  Boman 
conquest  of  Asia  continued  that  worlc  of  hellenizing 
Asia  which  the  Macedonian  conquest  had  begun.  It 
did  much  to  root  up  elements  older  than  Greek ;  it 
made  the  solid  Asiatic  peninsula,  the  special  Eomania 
of  later  times,  into  a  land  where  in  later  times  the 
Turk  has  come  in  on  his  errand  of  destruction,  but 
where  all  that  he  has  spared  is  still  Greek.  As  the 
Koman  did  this  work  in  the  East,  so  the  Teuton  did 
a  kindred  work  in  the  West ;  as  the  Eoman  every- 
where carried  Greece  with  him,  so  the  Teuton  every- 
where carried  Eome  with  him ;  his  coming  gave  the 
finishing  stroke  to  the  rooting  out  of  all  elements 
older  than  the  Koman  conquest.  Here  and  there 
old  tongues  and  old  beliefs  had  lingered  till  his 
coming;  but  for  them  he  had  not  even  those  feeble 
traces  of  reverence  which  may  have  still  lived  on  in 
the  mind  of  a  Boman  of  Gaul.  He  gladly  learned 
the  tongue  of  the  Boman ;  he  never  learned  the 
tongue  of  the  Celt  or  the  Iberian  ;  he  gladly  bowed 
to  the  God  whom  Eome  had  learned  to  worship; 
nothing  drew  him  either  to  the  elder  gods  of  Bome 
or  to  the  gods  elder  still  who  were  worshipped  before 
the  Boman  came.  In  two  corners  only,  special  cir- 
cumstances, taking  the  shape  of  a  distinct  reaction, 
allowed  the  elder  races  and  tongues  to  put  on  a 
new  life.  The  Gascon  north  of  the  Pyrenees  and 
the  Briton  south  of  the  Channel  rose  again,  when 
elsewhere  all  kindred  vestiges  were  dying  out,  to 
form  each  one  a  folk  which  has  lived  on  to  our 
own   day  as   a   survival   of  days,  not   only  before 


94  ROME  AND  THE  NEW  NATIONS. 

Chlodowig  and  Ataulf,  but  before  Gaius  Julius  and 
Gaius  Sextius. 

So  grew  up  the  new  nations  in  the  Western  lands  of 
Rome,  the  fruit  in  some  sort,  we  may  say,  of  the  union 
of  Gothia  and  Eomania.  But  there  were  other  nations 
which  did  not  spring  of  that  union,  nations  which 
kept  their  untouched  Teutonic  being,  nations  which 
still  dwelled  beyond  the  Empire,  which  within  some 
small  parts  of  the  Empire  settled  in  another  sort  from 
the  Goth  and  the  Burgundian  nations.  So  it  was  in 
the  island  which  we  won,  not  from  the  Roman  but 
from  the  Briton;  so  it  was  in  the  lands  by  Rhine  and 
Danube,  where  our  kinsfolk  conquered  almost  in  the 
same  sort  as  we  did.  Yet  even  on  lands  and  nations 
like  these  the  influence  of  Rome  was  deep  and  abiding. 
Step  by  step  they  embraced  the  faith  of  Rome  ;  and, 
without  casting  away  their  own  tongues,  they  adopted 
the  tongue  of  Rome  as  the  tongue  of  learning  and 
religion.  So  it  was  in  Germany  and  Scandinavia ; 
so  it  was  in  aU  the  lands  whose  religion  and  culture 
came  from  Germany; — with  the  Slaves  of  the  North- 
West  who  came  within  the  world  of  the  Western 
Caesar  and  the  Western  Pontifi",  even  with  the 
intruding  Magyar  whose  coming  split  asunder  the 
great  Slavonic  mass,  and  left  the  Pole  and  the  Wend 
to  look  to  the  elder  Rome,  while  the  Serb  and  the 
Russian  looked  to  the  younger.  But  the  great  con- 
quest— only  which  side  was  the  conqueror  % — was 
nearer  home.  It  was  another  partnership  between 
Gothia  and  Romania,  though  of  quite  another  kind 
from  that  which  was  meant  to  come  of  the  bride-ale 


THE  GOTHIC  TAKING  OF  ROME.  95 

of  Narbonne,  when  Eome  and  Germany  fused  together 
their  political  being,  and  the  Western  Empire  of 
Eome  became  the  HoljEoman  Empire  of  the  German 
Nation. 

In  our  general  survey  of  the  fifth  century  in  the 
West,  we  have  passed  but  lightly  over  the  most 
striking  event  of  its  earlier  years,  the  taking  of  the 
Eoman  city  by  the  Goth.  Before  the  century  was 
out,  Eome  had  become  used  to  capture  and  plunder. 
Gaiseric  and  Eicimer  had  harried  her  more  fiercely 
than  ever  Alaric  had  done.  As  an  event,  as  an 
incident,  none  in  the  whole  history  of  the  world  was 
ever  fitted  to  make  a  deeper  impression  on  men's 
minds  than  the  first  Teutonic  capture  of  Eome.  For 
the  purposes  of  the  preacher  and  the  moralist  it 
was  all  that  the  preachers  and  moralists  of  the  time 
painted  it.  But  on  the  actual  course  of  events  it 
had  little  effect.  And  why  \  Because  the  world  had 
so  largely  become  Eome  that  the  momentary  woes 
of  the  city  which  had  once  alone  been  Eome  were 
of  comparatively  little  moment.  The  invasion  of 
Italy  by  Alaric  led  indirectly  to  those  invasions  of 
Gaul  and  Spain  which  laid  the  foundations  of  the 
modern  world ;  but  his  actual  sack  of  Eome  had  no 
effect  on  the  busy  series  of  revolutions  which  fol- 
lowed on  those  invasions.  So  it  was  with  that 
other  event  of  the  later  half  of  the  century  in  which 
so  many  have  so  strangely  seen  the  end  of  the 
Eoman  Empire,  the  boundary  line  between  ancient 
and  modern  history.    It  was  doubtless  an  impressive 


96  ROME  AXD  THE  NEW  NATIONS. 

fact,  we  see  in  the  annals  of  the  time  that  it  was 
an  impressive  fact,  when  Emperors  ceased  to  reign 
either  at  Eome  or  at  Eavenna.  But  as  the  news 
that  the  Koman  Empire  had  come  to  an  end  would 
have  sounded  very  strange  at  Constantinople,  so  it 
would  have  sounded  no  less  strange  at  Soissons  or 
at  Salona.  It  did  not  greatly  touch  the  Roman 
realm  of  Syagrius  in  northern  Gaul  that  Italy  had 
acknowledged  Zeno  as  sole  Emperor,  and  that  he 
was  represented  in  the  Italian  diocese  by  the 
patrician  Odowakar.  That  those  decent  formalities 
veiled  a  revolution  by  which  the  reigning  Emperor 
had  been  set  aside  by  a  chief  of  barbarian  mer- 
cenaries was  nothing  new  or  wonderful.  The  only 
difference  between  the  revolution  of  476  and  a  crowd 
of  earher  revolutions  was  that  Odowakar  found  that 
it  suited  his  purpose  to  acknowledge  the  nominal 
superiority  of  an  absent  sovereign  rather  than  to  reign 
in  the  name  of  a  present  puppet  of  his  own  creation. 
Presently  it  was  found  convenient  at  Constantinople 
to  brand  the  patrician  as  a  tyrant,  and  to  grant  a  new 
commission  to  another  Teutonic  leader  to  displace  him 
and  to  rule  in  his  stead.  The  personal  greatness  of 
Theodoric  overshadowed  Emperor  and  Empire ;  from 
his  palace  at  Ravenna,  by  one  title  or  another,  by 
direct  dominion,  as  guardian,  as  elder  kinsman,  as 
representative  of  the  Roman  power,  as  head  by 
natural  selection  of  the  whole  Teutonic  world,  he 
ruled  over  all  the  western  lands  save  one ;  and  even 
to  the  conquering  Frank  he  could  say,  Thus  far 
shalt  thou  come  and  no  further.     In  true  majesty 


THEODORIC.  97 

such  a  position  was  more  than  Imperial ;  moreover 
there  was  nothing  in  the  rule  of  Theodoric  which 
touched  the  Eoman  life  of  Italy.  What  might  have 
happened  if  the  East-Gothic  power  in  Italy  had  been 
as  lasting  as  the  Frankish  power  in  Gaul,  or  even  as 
the  West-Gothic  power  in  Spain,  it  is  vain  to  guess. 
As  far  as  we  can  see,  it  was  the  very  greatness  of 
Theodoric  which  kept  his  power  from  being  lasting. 
Like  so  many  other  of  the  very  greatest  of  men,  he 
set  on  foot  a  system  which  he  himself  could  work,  but 
which  none  but  himself  could  work.  He  sought  to 
set  up  a  kingdom  of  Goths  and  Komans,  under 
which  the  two  nations  should  live  side  by  side, 
distinct  but  friendly,  each  keeping  its  own  law  and 
doing  its  own  work.  And  for  one  life-time  the  thing 
was  done.  Theodoric  could  keep  the  whole  fabric 
of  Koman  life  untouched,  with  the  Goth  standing 
by  as  an  armed  protector.  He  could,  as  he  said, 
leave  to  the  Koman  consul  the  honours  of  govern- 
ment and  take  for  the  Gothic  kicg  only  the  toils. 
Smaller  men  neither  could  nor  would  do  this,  and 
even  a  succession  of  Theodorics  could  hardly  have 
kept  on  for  generations  the  peculiar  relations  be- 
tween Goths  and  Eomans  which  he  established. 
His  rule  was  the  best,  as  that  of  the  Franks  was 
about  the  worst,  to  be  found  in  Eoman  and  Teutonic 
Europe  in  his  day.  Still  fusion  between  Eoman  and 
Teuton  was  the  very  essence  of  Frankish  rule ; 
under  the  system  of  Theodoric  no  direct  step  towards 
fusion  could  be  taken.  It  was  the  necessary  result 
of  his  position  that  he  gave  Italy  one  generation 

H 


98  ROME  AND  THE  NEW  NATIONS. 

of  peace  and  prosperity  such  as  has  no  fellow  for 
ages  on  either  side  of  it,  but  that,  when  he  was 
gone,  a  fabric  which  had  no  foundation  but  his 
personal  quahties  broke  down  with  a  crash.  Then 
came  the  two  events  of  the  sixth  century  at  which 
we  have  already  glanced.  Italy  was  wasted  by  a 
long  and  bloody  war,  which  in  the  end  swept  the 
East-Gothic  people  from  the  earth,  and  for  a  mo- 
ment left  the  Koman  Augustus  undisputed  master 
of  every  comer  of  the  Italian  peninsula.  Then, 
before  the  land  had  rested  from  the  long  struggle, 
came  another  Teutonic  invasion,  the  invasion  of  a 
people  far  less  touched  by  Koman  teaching  than 
the  Goths  had  been.  The  Lombards,  estabHshing 
their  rule  and  their  name  in  the  two  ends  of  Italy, 
never  won  the  whole  of  Italy.  They  never  reigned 
in  Kome ;  it  was  only  in  the  last  days  of  their 
power  that  they  reigned  in  Kavenna.  Throughout 
the  land,  if  there  was  a  bit  of  Lombardy  here,  there 
was  a  bit  of  untouched  Komania  there,  and  if  the 
Roman  Terminus  often  fell  back,  he  also  sometimes 
went  forward.  Even  after  the  Lombard  had  yielded 
to  the  Frank,  after  the  Frank  had  taken  on  himself 
the  titles  and  mission  of  the  Roman,  a  large  part  of 
Southern  Italy,  the  once  Greek  land,  with  the  old 
Greek  life  which  had  never  wholly  died  out  kept 
up  and  strengthened,  acknowledged  the  lordship, 
not  of  the  German-speaking  Augustus  of  the  Old 
.  Rome,  but  of  the  Greek-speaking  Augustus  of  the 
New. 

Of  the  Empire  itself,  its  unions,  its  divisions,  the 


THE  GOTHS  IN  THE  EAST.  99 

general  position  which  it  kept  in  the  world,  I  shall 
speak  in  another  lecture.  My  present  subject  is 
the  influence  of  Eome  on  the  new  nations  which  in 
the  course  of  the  fifth  century  found  themselves 
homes  within  her  borders.  And  that  practically 
means  her  influence  on  the  Teutonic  nations  of  the 
Western  European  mainland.  It  is  true  that  the 
greatest  Teutonic  migration  of  all,  the  long  marches 
of  the  Goths,  Eastern  and  Western,  began  in  the 
East.  While  Vandals,  Burgundians,  Franks,  came  in 
by  way  of  Rhine,  the  Goths  came  in  by  way  of 
Danube.  Their  course  in  the  Danubian  lands  forms 
one  of  the  most  striking  pieces  of  the  history  of  the 
fourth  century  and  one  of  the  most  confused  pieces 
of  the  history  of  the  fifth.  But  that  history  of  the 
Goths  which  really  afiected  the  world,  the  history 
both  of  the  West-Goths  of  Alaric  and  of  the  East- 
Goths  of  Theodoric,  was  wrought  in  the  West.  The 
Western  Goths,  as  their  name  implies,  came  before  the 
Eastern  and  found  homes  further  to  the  West.  And 
after  the  withdrawal  of  Theodoric  and  the  East-Goths 
from  the  Eastern  provinces,  those  provinces  which 
still  remained  under  the  immediate  rule  of  the 
Emperors  at  the  New  Rome,  all  part  of  the  first 
Teutonic  invaders  in  the  history  of  the  Eastern 
peninsula  may  be  said  to  come  to  an  end.  In  that 
peninsula  they  had  been  hardly  more  than  invaders  ; 
they  had  formed  no  important  abiding  settlement. 
For  them  the  Eastern  lands  were  mainly  a  road  to 
Italy  and  Spain  and  Gaul.  The  part  which  the 
Teutons  played  in  the  West  was  to  be  played  in  the 

H  2 


100  ROME  AND  THE  NEW  NATIONS. 

East,  so  far  as  it  was  to  be  played  at  all,  bj  quite 
another  branch  of  the  Aryan  stock. 

I  have  often  had  to  point  out  the  analogy  between 
the  position  of  the  Teutonic  settlers  in  the  West  and 
that  of  the  Slavonic  settlers  in  the  East.  The  East, 
mainly  the  South-East,  of  Europe  is  the  true  field 
for  Slavonic  growth.  Of  the  Slaves  of  the  North- 
West  we  have  already  spoken  a  word  or  two,  as 
coming  within  the  range  of  the  dominion  and  the 
creed  of  the  Western  Eome.  The  North- Western 
Slaves  have  been  largely  exterminated  or  assimilated 
by  Teutonic  conquerors ;  even  those  who  escaped 
this  lot  have  passed,  by  their  union  with  the  Latin 
Church,  into  the  general  group  of  the  nations  of 
Western  Europe.  The  historic  calHng  of  the  Slavonic 
nations  lies  in  the  East,  within  the  range  of  the 
Eastern  Empire  and  the  Eastern  Church.  There  we 
may  make  our  comparison  between  their  position 
towards  that  side  of  the  Eoman  world  and  the 
position  of  the  Teutons  towards  its  Western  side. 
The  analogy  between  the  two  is  real  and  strong; 
but  it  is  an  analogy  which  presents  almost  as  many 
points  of  contrast  as  of  likeness.  In  the  phrase  that 
I  have  so  often  had  to  use,  the  Slaves  were  to  the 
Eastern  lands  of  Kome,  as  the  Teutons  were  to  the 
Western,  at  once  conquerors  and  disciples.  But  they 
were  neither  conquerors  nor  disciples  in  exactly  the 
same  sense.  The  difference  largely  turned  on  the 
different  positions  of  the  Old  and  the  New  Rome. 
In  the  West,  the  more  deeply  Roman  influences  took 
root,  the  less  did  the  city  of  Rome  show  itself  as  a 


THE  OLD  AND  THE  NEW  ROME.  101 

seat  of  actual  rule,  till  the  days  came  when  it 
became  the  seat  of  an  oecumenical  rule  of  another 
kind.  From  the  third  century  to  the  nineteenth, 
Eome  never  was  the  abiding  dwelling-place  of  Em- 
perors ;  wherever  they  dwelled,  they  were,  as  far  as 
the  local  Eome  was  concerned,  non-resident.  The 
influence  of  Rome,  the  use  of  the  Roman  language, 
had  nothing  to  do  with  any  political  boundary;  it 
was  only  here  and  there,  in  the  Exarchate  and  in 
the  Imperial  possessions  in  Spain,  that  there  was 
any  distinct  geographical  frontier  between  Roman 
and  Teutonic  rule.  The  possession  of  the  Roman 
city  did  not  necessarily  carry  with  it  any  special 
dominion  in  other  Roman  lands,  and  a  great  dominion 
in  other  Roman  lands  might  be  won  without  its  pos- 
session. With  the  Eastern  Rome  it  was  far  other- 
wise ;  there  the  city  was  the  life  and  soul  and  centre 
of  all.  The  too  discerning  eye  of  its  founder  had 
planted  his  New  Rome  at  the  junction  of  two  worlds, 
to  prolong  the  being  of  successive  powers  which,  save 
for  its  possession,  might  sooner  have  passed  away. 
Constantinople  was  never  without  an  Emperor 
dwelling  within  its  walls,  and  holding  a  greater 
or  less  extent  of  territory  in  fact  as  well  as  in 
name.  His  boundaries  might  fluctuate  ;  the  posi- 
tion of  this  or  that  land  might  fluctuate.  In  the 
process  of  constant  warfare  along  a  long  and  ill- 
defined  boundary,  this  or  that  land  or  city  might 
sometimes  be  under  the  undisputed  authority  of 
the  Emperor ;  it  might  sometimes  be  absolutely  cut 
ofi"  from  the  Empire  and  form  part  of  a  barbarian 


102  ROME  AND  THE  NEW  NATIONS. 

kingdom  ;  it  might  sometimes  be  in  the  intermediate 
state  of  a  dependency  over  which  the  Emperor  held 
an  outward  superiority  which  he  could  enforce 
or  not  according  to  circumstances.  All  this  has 
its  like  in  the  West;  but  there  is  nothing  in 
the  West  like  the  firm  abiding  of  the  Imperial 
power  at  Constantinople.  Whatever  was  the  ex- 
tent or  the  nature  of  the  dominion  of  the  Eastern 
Emperor,  the  Eastern  Kome  was  its  local  centre, 
the  spot  to  which  every  corner  of  that  dominion 
looked  as  its  head.  No  Slavonic  host  harried  the 
Eastern  Rome  as  so  many  Teutonic  hosts  harried 
the  Western.  No  king  of  a  Slavonic  people  received 
an  Imperial  crown  in  Saint  Sophia,  as  so  many  kings 
of  a  Teutonic  people  received  an  Imperial  crown  in 
Saint  Peter's.  The  utmost  that  such  a  king  could 
do  was  to  set  up  a  Tzarigrad  of  his  own,  to  wear 
a  crown  which  he  loved  to  call  Imperial  at  Ochrida 
or  at  Skoupi.  The  Slave  became  in  many  things  a 
disciple  of  the  Eastern  Rome,  but  in  some  things  he 
was  perhaps  an  imitator  rather  than  a  disciple.  He 
always  remained  an  outsider,  in  a  way  in  which 
the  Teuton  did  not  remain  in  the  West.  In  religious 
worship,  above  all,  he  never  adopted  either  of  the 
tongues  of  the  Empire ;  he  could  become  a  disciple 
without  becoming  a  subject.  No  new  speech,  no  new 
nationalitv,  arose  in  the  East  out  of  a  mixture  of 
Slavonic  and  Roman  or  Greek  elements,  answering 
to  the  formation  of  the  Romance  tongues  and  nations 
of  the  West.  One  cause,  as  we  shall  hereafter  see, 
was  that  the  Eastern  Rome  spoke  with  two  tongues, 


THE  SLAVES  IN  THE  EAST.  103 

while  the  Western  Eome  spoke  with  one  only. 
There  is  a  Eomance  nation  in  the  East,  but  the 
Slave  was  not  one  of  its  component  elements;  the 
Slavonic  invasion  in  short  did  not  a  little  to  hinder 
its  growth.  On  many  of  these  points  I  may  have 
to  speak  again.  The  main  business  of  the  present 
lecture  lies  in  the  West,  in  the  Western  lands  of  the 
European  mainland.  Yet  we  must  not  forget  that 
the  birth  of  our  own  nation,  the  settlement  of  our 
forefathers  in  our  second  home,  came  within  the 
bounds  of  the  same  century  which  saw  Burgundian, 
Gothic,  and  Frankish  kingdoms  arise  in  Gaul.  But 
we,  in  our  island  home,  our  alter  orhis,  stood  largely 
aloof  from  the  revolutions  of  the  mainland.  Our  own 
tale  must  be  told  separately,  and  it  cannot  be  told  in 
all  its  fulness  till  the  revolutions  of  the  mainland  are 
fully  understood.  To-day  we  have  had  to  deal  with 
the  settlements  of  our  kinsfolk  in  the  continental 
provinces  of  the  West.  At  the  East  we  have  simply 
glanced.  We  shall  have  to  speak  of  it  more  fully 
when  we  come  to  speak  of  the  causes  which  split 
East  -and  West  apart  for  ever. 


LECTURE    IV. 
THE  DIVIDED  EMPIEE. 

The  most  renowned  of  my  predecessors  in  this 
chair,  in  planning  that  History  of  Rome  which  un- 
happily remained  a  fragment,  but  which  gave  to  the 
world  in  its  last  finished  volume  the  very  perfection 
of  historical  narrative,  designed  to  carry  on  his  work 
to  the  coronation  of  Charles  the  Great.  The  reading 
and  thought  of  forty  years  have  ever  more  and  more 
convinced  me  of  the  wisdom  of  Arnold's  choice.  The 
year  800  was  not,  any  more  than  the  year  476,  the 
end  of  the  Roman  Empire ;  it  is  not,  any  more 
than  the  year  476,  a  boundary  between  "Ancient " 
and  "  Modern  "  History.  But  it  is  one  of  the  most 
marked  turning-points  in  the  history  of  the  Empire 
and  of  the  world,  a  turning-point  of  immeasureably 
greater  moment  than  the  consulship  of  Basiliscus  and 
Armatus.  The  election  of  the  first  Charles  changed 
the  face  of  the  world  far  more  than  the  deposition 
of  the  last  Romulus.  Of  a  History  of  Rome  such  as 
Arnold  planned,  it  was,  as  the  wise  instinct  of  Arnold 
saw,  the  fitting  ending.  The  election  of  Charles 
did,  in  outward  show,  restore  the  Old  Rome  to  her 
old  position.  She  again  became,  if  not  the  dwell- 
ing-place, at  least  the  crowning-place,  of  Emperors. 


THE  ELECTION  OF  CHARLES.  105 

In  truth  the  Old  Kome  had  never  before  beheld  the 
ancient  Hebrew  rite  which,  from  the  fifth  century 
onwards,  had  become  familiar  in  the  New.  For  a 
thousand  years  longer  the  titles  of  her  Empire  went 
on;  for  seven  hundred  years  longer  they  could  be 
won  only  before  the  altar  of  the  Vatican  basilica. 
For  full  five  hundred  years  longer  the  Koman  Empire 
of  the  West  was,  as  such,  a  living  thing,  a  thing  that 
influenced  the  minds  and  acts  of  men,  a  mighty  fact,  a 
still  mightier  theory.  But  in  the  West  the  Emperor  of 
the  Komans  had  less  and  less  to  do  with  the  Old  Kome. 
To  his  Imperial  capital  he  gradually  became  a  stranger, 
and  his  capital  became  a  city  of  strangers  to  him.  In 
short,  the  Eoman  power  in  the  West  altogether  passed 
away,  not  only  from  the  Eoman  city,  but  from  the  arti- 
ficial Eoman  nation.  When  Eome  again  asserted  her 
right  to  choose  her  sovereign,  she  chose,  she  could  not 
fail  to  choose,  a  man  who  was  not  Eoman  even  by 
adoption.  She  chose  the  Frankish  king.  Pippin  had 
been  Patrician ;  so  had  Eicimer ;  so  had  Odowakar. 
But  the  son  of  Pippin  bore  a  loftier  style.  The  long- 
abiding  tradition  was  broken  through ;  a  barbarian 
received  the  diadem ;  the  Eoman  Pontiff"  spoke  the 
words,  and  the  Eoman  people  echoed  them — "  Karolo 
Augusto,a  Deo  coronato,magno  etpacifico  Eomanorum 
Imperatori,  vita  et  victoria."  The  German  was  at 
last  Augustus.  No  greater  witness  could  there  be  to 
the  moral  conquest  which  each  race  had  won  over  the 
other.  The  Empire  now  in  form  received  its  greatest 
territorial  enlargement.  Gaul  was  won  back  and  Ger- 
many was  added.     Wherever  the  Frankish  king  had 


106  THE  DIVIDED  EMPIRE. 

before  ruled  as  king,  he  now  ruled  as  Emperor. 
Terminus  advanced  to  the  Elbe  and  the  Eider ;  he 
was  ready  to  advance  to  the  Oder  and  the  Vistula, 
or,  if  need  should  be,  to  the  world's  end.  AU  unreal, 
all  nominal,  some  objector  will  cry;  an  advance,  not 
of  Eome,  but  of  Germany,  an  advance,  not  of  the 
Eoman  Augustus,  but  of  the  Frankish  king.  And 
truly  the  Empire  of  Charles,  much  more  the  Empire 
of  the  Henries  and  Fredericks,  was  unreal  in  this, 
that  it  was  assuredly  a  very  different  thing  from 
the  Empire  of  Trajan  or  of  Diocletian.  It  was  as- 
suredly not  Eoman  in  the  sense  in  which  the  Empire 
even  of  Theodosius  was  Eoman.  But  here  lies  the 
greatest  proof  of  the  influence  of  Eome,  of  her  magic 
power  over  the  minds  of  men,  that  a  power  which 
had  practically  ceased  to  be  Eoman,  should  still  be 
Eoman  in  men's  eyes,  and,  as  Eoman,  should  command 
a  reverence,  a  devotion,  a  bowing  down  as  it  were  of 
the  whole  soul,  which  could  be  called  forth  by  no 
other  name.  A  name  may  have  lost  its  first  meaning ; 
but,  as  long  as  men  will  fight  and  die  for  the  name, 
the  name  is  a  fact  indeed. 

The  act  of  800,  it  must  always  be  borne  in  mind, 
was  in  one  sense  the  repetition,  in  another  sense  the 
undoing,  of  the  act  of  476  ;  but  it  was  in  no  case  the 
revival  of  the  line  of  Emperors  which  came  to  an 
end  in  476.  Charles,  Emperor  of  the  Eomans,  was 
not  the  successor  after  a  long  interval  either  of  Eo- 
mulus  Augustulus  or  of  Juhus  Nepos  ;  he  was  the 
immediate  successor  of  Constantine  the  Sixth.  The 
Emperors  had  lost  all  practical  authority  in  Eome 


IN  WHAT  SENSE  BOM  AN  107 

earlier  in  the  century;  their  power  had  passed  to  the 
Frank.  Charles  Augustus  received  no  powers  which 
he  had  not  already  exercised  as  Patrician ;  only 
hitherto  the  titles  of  sovereignty  had  been  left  to  the 
Emperor  beyond  the  sea.  The  name  now  went  with 
the  reality;  the  titles  and  badges  of  Empire  were 
transferred  to  the  new  Emperor  reigning  at  Kome,  at 
least  crowned  and  anointed  at  Eome.  There  was  no 
need  to  depose  any  reigning  sovereign.  Rome  had 
acknowledged  Constantino ;  she  refused  to  acknow- 
ledge Eir^n^ ;  the  Empire  could  not  be  held  by  a 
woman,  least  of  all  by  a  woman  who  had  deposed 
and  blinded  her  own  son.  There  was  again  an  in- 
terregnum, such  as  had  followed  the  death  of  Romulus 
and  the  death  of  Aurelian ;  that  interregnum  was 
ended  by  the  election  of  Charles.  In  Western  theory 
no  doubt,  Charles  himself,  and  each  of  his  successors, 
was  elected  to  the  sovereignty  of  the  whole  Empire ; 
he  was  to  reign,  if  he  could,  over  the  New  Rome  as 
well  as  over  the  Old.  In  Eastern  theory  no  doubt  the 
election  and  coronation  were  null  and  void  ;  the  Em- 
peror anointed  in  Saint  Sophia  had  a  right  which 
none  could  take  away  to  reign  over  the  Old  Rome  as 
well  as  over  the  New.  Each  Emperor  in  short  asserted 
himself  to  be  the  one  true  Emperor  and  the  other  to 
be  an  impostor  or  a  tyrant.  The  dispute  was  for 
some  centuries  stirred  up  afresh  from  time  to  time  at 
some  moment  favourable  for  its  discussion.  To  men 
zealous  for  Eastern  rights  the  Western  claimant  was 
a  mere  'AXa^cai/wi/  /oj?^  ;  to  men  zealous  for  Western 
rights  the  Eastern  claimant  was  nothing  loftier  than 


108  THE  DIVIDED  EMPIRE. 

"  Kex  Grsecise."  The  most  curious  piece  of  discussion 
on  the  subject  is  the  memorable  controversy,  waged 
by  or  invented  for  Basil  of  the  East  and  Lewis  of  the 
West,  while  the  grounds  of  the  dispute  were  still 
fresh.  It  was  a  moment  of  pride  for  Charles  the 
Great  himself  when  Nikephoros  waived  his  claim 
to  universal  rule,  when  he  admitted  the  Frankish 
king  as  his  equal  and  bade  his  ambassadors  adore 
him  as  Imperator  and  ^aa-iXev?,  A  conflict  of  claims 
like  this,  in  which  each  of  the  two  greatest  princes 
of  Christendom  gave  himself  out  to  be  the  one 
head  of  Christendom,  might  have  been  expected  to 
lead  to  something  more  than  constant  disputes  and 
jealousies ;  it  might  have  been  expected  to  lead  to 
constant  wars.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  formal  wars 
between  the  two  Empires  were  not  common ;  there 
was  Httle  to  gain  by  them  on  either  side.  But  rivalry 
and  ill-feeling  went  on  between  the  princes  of  the 
West  and  of  the  East,  between  the  men  of  the  West 
and  of  the  East,  to  the  great  damage  of  Christendom 
in  more  than  one  hour  of  need. 

The  truest  view  of  the  event  of  800  is  that  the 
existing  Empire  was  spHt  asimder,  and  that  the 
western  fragment,  that  which  acknowledged  the 
Frankish  king  as  its  Emperor,  was  in  form  enlarged 
by  the  addition  of  the  teiTitories  of  the  Frankish  king. 
The  Empire  was  now  really  split  asunder;  it  was 
split  asunder  between  two  rivals,  each  of  whom  held 
himself  to  be  the  one  lawful  representative  of  their 
common  predecessors.  This  state  of  things  must  not 
be  confounded  with  the  state  of  things  in  the  fifth 


RELATIONS  BETWEEN  THE  TWO  EMPIRES.     109 

century.  The  Empire  was  now  divided  in  quite 
another  way  from  that  in  which  it  had  been  divided 
between  the  sons  of  Theodosius.  The  division  be- 
tween the  sons  of  Theodosius  did  not  differ  in  form 
from  the  division  between  the  sons  of  Constantine  or 
the  earlier  division  between  Diocletian  and  Maximian. 
The  division  between  Arcadius  and  Honorius,  and 
the  Emperors  who  followed  them  in  the  fifth  century, 
was  a  division  by  consent ;  the  administration  of  a 
single  Empire  was  divided,  as  it  had  often  been  be- 
fore, between  two  Imperial  colleagues.  But  now  it 
was  divided  between  two  rival  potentates,  each  of 
whom  was  in  theory  bound  to  deny  the  rights  of  the 
other.  Then  the  West  was  often  willing  to  accept 
the  prince  named  by  the  Emperor  who  reigned  over 
the  East ;  now  assuredly  no  prince  named  by  the 
lord  of  Constantinople,  the  "  rex  Grsecise,"  would 
have  been  admitted  to  royal  and  imperial  unction 
at  Aachen,  at  Milan,  and  at  Eome.  But  mark 
further  that  the  Western  division,  the  Western 
Empire,  was  not  only  parted  from  the  Eastern,  but 
was  enlarged  by  the  addition  of  new  territories,  over 
a  great  part  of  which  no  Emperor  had  ever  reigned 
before.  If  Charles  had  kept  his  Frankish  and  Lombard 
kingdoms  distinct  from  his  Koman  Empire,  the  last 
would  have  consisted  only  of  Rome  and  Ravenna  and 
the  lands  about  those  cities.  No  one  so  well  deserved 
the  somewhat  grotesque  title  of  his  later  successors, 
*'zu  alien  Zeiten  Mehrer  des  Reichs,"  as  the  first 
Emperor  who  could  have  understood  his  own  de- 
scription in  any  Teutonic  tongue.     Charles,  as  I  said 


110  THE  DIVIDED  EMPIRE. 

earlier  in  these  lectures,  annexed  the  lands  which 
Drusus  and  Germanicus  had  failed  to  annex.  But  to 
what  did  he  annex  them  1  Assuredly  to  something 
very  different  from  the  Empire  of  the  first  Augustus, 
to  something  very  different  from  that  western  half 
of  the  Empire  of  Augustus  which  had  been  reigned 
over  by  Maximian  and  Valentiniau.  And  the  effect  of 
the  annexation  was  widely  different  from  what  it 
would  have  been  if  it  had  been  made  either  by 
Drusus  or  by  Yalentinian.  The  main  difference  lies 
in  this,  that  whatever  was  annexed  to  the  Empire 
at  either  of  the  earlier  times  was  forthwith  added  to 
the  artificial  Eoman  nation  that  was  growing  up, 
while  the  inclusion  of  the  whole  dominions  of  Charles 
within  the  Empire,  though  it  still  carried  with  it 
an  extension  of  Eoman  influences,  in  no  way  carried 
with  it  any  extension  of  an  artificial  Eoman  nation. 
The  new  subjects  of  the  Eoman  Empire,  the  in- 
habitants of  Gaul  and  Germany,  assuredly  did  not 
feel  that  they  had  become  Eomans.  The  election 
of  Charles  to  the  Empire,  the  annexation  of  all  his 
dominions  to  the  Empire,  did  far  more  to  make 
the  Empire  German  than  it  did  to  make  Germany 
Eoman.  The  Eoman  style  of  the  Empire  is  still 
very  much  more  than  a  name ;  its  Eoman  traditions 
are  still  very  much  more  than  mere  words ;  it  is  still 
by  its  abiding  Eoman  character  that  it  keeps  its 
influence  over  the  minds  of  men.  But  it  is  now 
altogether  divorced  from  any  practical  connexion 
with  the  Eoman  city  and  with  the  Eoman  nation. 
It  was  nothing  new  that  Emperors  should  be  made 


GERMAN  SIDE  OF  THE  WESTERN  EMPIRE.     Ill 

elsewhere  than  in  Kome ;  that  discovery  was  made 
before  the  first  century  of  the  Empire  ended.  But  the 
Emperors  so  made  were  Romans,  Roman  in  speech, 
Roman  at  one  stage  by  real  citizenship,  at  another 
by  artificial  nationality.  It  was  something  new  that 
Rome  should  be  the  crowning-place,  and  only  the 
crowning-place,  of  Emperors  who  were  Roman  in 
no  sense  but  that  of  being  Roman  Emperors.  The 
Emperor  was  Bomanorum  Im^erator  to  the  last ;  but 
who  were  the  Bomani  %  Were  they  the  inhabitants 
of  the  Empire  as  a  body  \  The  mass  of  them 
would  assuredly  have  disclaimed  the  Roman  name. 
Or  had  the,  name  fallen  back  on  its  elder  and  nar- 
rower senses  in  which  it  meant  only  the  people  of 
the  Roman  city  %  But  in  Rome  itself  the  authority  of 
the  Roman  Emperor  passed  away  more  thoroughly  and 
more  formally  than  elsewhere.  The  Imperator  and 
the  Pontifex  Maximus  had  long  ceased  to  be  the  same, 
and  in  Rome  the  Pontifex  Maximus  of  the  new  faith 
had  become  the  true  local  sovereign.  For  ages  the 
Imperator  came  to  Rome  only  to  become  Imperator, 
and  then  to  go  away.  At  last,  when  the  succession 
begun  by  Charles  was  drawing  near  its  thousandth 
year,  an  Imperator  electus  came  to  Rome,  and  went 
away  without  winning  the  right  to  cast  aside  his 
qualifying  adjective. 

The  truest  description  of  the  Western  Empire 
during  the  thousand  years  from  the  first  Charles 
to  the  last  Francis  is  that  which  sounds  so  like 
a  contradiction,  "the  Holy  Roman  Empire  of  the 
German    Nation."      It    remained    by  the    strictest 


112  THE  DIVIDED  EMPIRE. 

continuity  a  Boman  Empire ;  once  accept  the  posi- 
tion of  the  Western  Emperors  as  against  the  Eastern, 
and  no  flaw  can  be  found  in  the  whole  succession. 
But  the  Boman  Empire  had  become  a  possession 
of  the  German  nation ;  German  electors  chose  a 
German  king,  and  the  German  king  had  a  right 
to  receive  his  consecration  as  Boman  Emperor  with- 
out any  further  questions  being  asked. 

"Ex  quo  Romanum  nostra  virtute  redemptum, 
Hostibus  expulsis,  ad  nos  justissimus  ordo 
Transtulit  iinperium,  Roinani  gloria  regni 
Nos  penes  est :  quemcumque  sibi  Germania  regem 
Prseficit,  hunc  dives  submisso  vertice  Roma 
Suscipit,  et  verso  Tiberim  regit  ordine  Rhenus." 

An  older  form  of  the  same  idea  is  found  in  the 
phrase  which  spoke  of  the  translation  of  the  Empire 
from  the  Greeks  to  the  Franks.  Translated  to  the 
Franks,  the  Empire,  as  concerns  the  West,  assuredly 
was ;  and,  on  the  Western  theory,  it  may  in  a  sense 
be  said  to  be  translated  from  the  Greeks.  A  line 
of  Emperors  whose  native  speech  was  German  suc- 
ceeded, in  Western  ideas,  a  line  of  Emperors  whose 
native  speech  was  Greek.  Yet  the  phrase  will  not 
stand  every  test.  The  words  *^ Greek"  and  "  Frank," 
as  used  in  the  formula,  do  not  exactly  answer  to 
one  another.  A  man  of  the  East,  if  he  could  have 
brought  himself  to  allow  that  the  Empire  had  been 
translated  at  all  from  his  own  side  of  Hadria,  would 
have  said  that  the  formula  should  rather  speak  of 
a  translation  of  the  Empire  from  the  Bomans  to 
the  Franks.     But  no  one  in  the  West  would  have 


"  TRANSLATION  FROM  GREEKS  TO  FRANKS."   113 

thought  of  saying  that  the  Empire  was  translated 
from  the  Greeks  to  the  Romans.  We  have  just 
heard  the  Western  Empire  called,  with  national 
pride,  a  Holy  Roman  Empire  of  the  German  Nation. 
But  no  national  pride  could  have  been  called  up  by 
speaking  of  the  Eastern  Empire  as  a  Holy  Eoman 
Empire  of  the  Greek  nation.  For  "  German "  was 
a  national  name  in  which  the  men  of  the  Western 
Empire  gloried ;  "  Greek"  was  a  name  which  no  man 
of  the  Eastern  Empire  admitted  to  belong  to  him. 
It  is  perfectly  true  that  the  two  Empires  did  in 
the  end  become,  the  one  a  German,  the  other  a 
Greek  state.  But  they  became  German  and  Greek 
in  different  senses  and  by  different  processes.  We 
see  at  once  that  the  Western  Empire  became  German 
through  the  election  of  a  German  king  to  its  crown. 
It  seems  ridiculous  to  speak,  even  for  the  sake  of 
pointing  the  contrast,  of  the  Eastern  Empire  be- 
coming Greek  by  the  election  of  a  Greek  king  to 
its  crown.  Something  like  that  might  happen  in 
the  nineteenth  century;  it  could  not  possibly  happen 
in  the  ninth.  We  may  here  bring  in  the  analogy 
and  the  contrast  of  which  I  spoke  at  the  end  of 
our  last  lecture.  The  nearest  analogy  to  be  found 
in  the  East  to  the  Empire  of  Charles  the  Frank 
would  have  been  if  Bulgarian  Simeon  or  Servian 
Stephen  had  been  crowned  Emperor  of  the  Romans 
in  Saint  Sophia  and  had  from  that  moment  reigned 
over  Bulgaria  or  Servia  in  his  character  of  Em- 
peror of  the  Romans.  But  the  nearest  approach 
to  this  was  when  the  Tzar  Simeon  and  the  Tzar 


114  THE  DIVIDED  EMPIRE. 

Stephen  took  an  Imperial  style  without  entering 
the  walls  of  the  Tzarigrad.  That  such  was  the 
nearest  approach  in  the  East  to  the  event  of  the  year 
8cx)  is  the  most  marked  point  of  difference  between 
the  positions  of  the  Teuton  in  the  West  and  the  Slave 
in  the  East.  One  main  reason  why  it  was  the  nearest 
approach  lies  in  the  different  positions  held  by  the 
Old  and  the  New  Kome  in  the  two  Empires.  For 
another  main  reason  we  must  look  a  little  further. 

I  said  a  few  minutes  back  that  a  man  in  the  East 
might  perhaps  have  said  that  the  Empire  was 
translated  to  the  Franks  from  the  Komans,  but  that 
no  man  in  the  West  would  ever  have  said  that  the 
Empire  was  translated  from  the  Greeks  to  the 
Romans.  I  said  also  in  my  last  lecture  that  one 
great  cause  of  the  different  position  held  by  the 
Teutons  in  the  West  and  by  the  Slaves  in  the  East 
was  that  the  Eastern  Empire  spoke  with  two 
tongues,  while  the  Western  Empire  spoke  with  one 
tongue  only.  The  cause  of  that  difference  has  to  be 
sought  for  in  far  earlier  stages  of  our  subject ;  it  is 
the  continuation  of  the  difference  which  I  pointed 
out  long  ago  between  the  position  of  Rome  in  the 
East  and  in  the  West ;  the  difference  that,  while  in 
both  aUke  Rome  was  a  ruler,  in  the  West  she  was 
also  a  teacher,  while  in  the  East  she  was  her- 
self a  learner.  In  the  West  Latin  displaced  the 
native  languages.  We  may  say  that  no  Roman  ever 
learned  Celtic  or  Iberian.  If  any  Roman  ever  did, 
it  could  have  been  only  for  some  immediate  practical 
purpose.     But   in   the  East  Latin   never   displaced 


GREEK  AND  LATIN  IN  THE  EAST.  115 

Greek ;  it  was  not  likely  to  displace,  there  was  no 
wish  that  it  should  displace,  a  tongue  which  every 
educated  Koman  learned  as  a  matter  of  course.  The 
tendency  was  rather  the  other  way.  At  one  stage, 
as  I  pointed  out  in  another  set  of  lectures,  Greek 
went  far  to  displace  Latin  as  a  literary  tongue  even 
jn  Rome ;  the  later  Latin  writers,  like  Ammianus 
and  Claudian,  mark  in  truth  a  Latin  reaction  against 
Greek  influences.  In  the  Greek  East  Greek  lived 
on .  and  flourished ;  Latin  was  simply  set  up  by  its 
side  for  certain  purposes.  The  Roman  Empire  of 
course,  whether  in  East  or  West,  knew  no  official 
tongue  but  Latin.  Latin  therefore  remained  for  ages 
the  tongue  of  government  and  warfare  in  the  Roman 
East,  while  Greek  was  the  language  of  ordinary 
speech,  of  literature,  and  of  reHgion.  That  is  to  say, 
the  position  which  belonged  to  Latin  alone  in  the 
West  was  in  the  East  divided  between  Latin  and 
Greek.  It  was  impossible  therefore  that  either  of 
those  tongues  should  make  the  same  way  among 
other  nations  which  Latin,  with  its  undivided  su- 
premacy, made  in  the  West.  In  those  parts  of 
Eastern  Europe  where  Greek  had  not  already 
established  itself,  the  phsenomena  of  Western  Europe 
showed  themselves.  In  inland  Thrace  and  Moesia, 
just  as  in  Gaul  and  Spain,  a  Romance  speech  did 
spring  up,  and  in  the  wilder  lands  of  Illyricum,  the 
Skipetar,  the  modern  Albanian,  still  kept  his  own 
speech,  like  the  Basque  and  the  Breton  of  the  West. 
Thus  to  the  invading  Teuton,  the  culture  of  the 
Empire  presented  itself  only  in  a  single  shape,  a 

I  2 


116  THE  DIVIDED  EMPIRE. 

Latin  shape,  while  the  invading  Slave,  if  he  wished 
to  adopt  the  culture  of  the  Empire,  must  have  been 
puzzled  by  the  twofold  shape,  Greek  and  Latin,  in 
which  it  stood  before  him.  It  was  an  almost  neces- 
sary consequence  that  neither  element  ever  had  the 
same  influence  on  the  Slavonic  conquerors  of  the  East 
which  the  single  Latin  element  had  on  the  Teutonic 
conquerors  of  the  West. 

I  have  said  that  the  Roman  Empire  of  the  West 
became  by  degrees  a  German  power,  and  that  the 
Roman  Empire  of  the  East  became  by  degrees  a 
Greek  power.  But  I  have  said  also  that  they  became 
so  in  different  ways.  We  have  seen  that  the  Western 
Empire  became  German  by  the  process  of  choosing 
German  kings  to  its  Emperors,  and  by  extending  the 
name  of  Roman  Empire  over  their  German  dominions. 
The  Eastern  Empire  became  Greek  in  quite  another 
way.  There  was  no  transfer  of  Roman  power  to 
Greek  princes,  no  extension  of  the  Roman  name  over 
Greek  lands.  Either  process  might  have  happened 
with  Slavonic  princes  and  Slavonic  lands ;  neither 
could  happen  with  Greek  princes  or  Greek  lands,  for 
the  simple  reason  that  Greek  princes  and  lands,  as 
distinguished  from  Roman,  were  not  in  being.  In  the 
Romania  of  the  East,  in  Eastern  Europe  and  Western 
Asia,  Greek  and  Roman  meant  the  same  thing.  We 
have  spoken  of  an  artificial  Greek  nation  and  of  an 
artificial  Roman  nation;  in  the  Eastern  Romania 
they  were  the  same  thing.  Of  the  two  tongues  of 
the  East-Roman  world,  the  tongue  which  was  native 
to  the  soil  proved  the  stronger.    Latin  gradually  died 


"EAAHNES  AND  *PX2MA1oI.  117 

out  even  in  its  own  range ;  it  died  out,  that  is,  as  a 
separate  speech,  though  not  till  it  had  poured  a  vast 
infusion  of  Latin  words  into  the  official  Greek  vocabu- 
lary. Greek  became  the  one  language  of  the  Koman 
Empire  of  the  East ;  as  in  the  West  the  Eomance  lan- 
guages grew  up,  while  Latin  long  abode  beside  them  as 
an  official,  a  literary,  and  a  rehgious  speech,  so  in  the 
East  men  spoke  a  more  modern  form  of  the  Greek 
tongue,  while  its  older  shape  went  on  as  the  official, 
the  Hterary,  and  the  religious  speech.  But  down  to 
the  coming  of  the  Ottoman,  nay  down  to  the  move- 
ment of  our  own  century  which  in  some  lands  has 
thrown  off  his  yoke,  the  Eoman  name  lived  on.  What 
name  in  short  should  supplant  it  ?  The  name  of 
HelUn  had  passed  away ;  it  had  become  synonymous 
with  'pagan.  The  Greek  name  had  never  been  ^  used 
in  the  Hellenic  lands ;  it  was  the  name  by  which  the 
Hellenes  were  known  in  the  West,  exactly  as  the 
Deutschen  and  the  Cymry  are  known  among  other 
nations  by  other  names  than  those  by  which  they  call 
themselves.  In  truth  the  people  whom  the  Latins 
called  Grasci  called  themselves  at  one  stage  "EXXj/i/e? 
and  at  another  'Voofxaioi.  The  Eoman  name  Hved  on, 
and  well  it  might ;  there  was  nothing  to  change  it. 
While  the  Western  part  of  the  Empire  w^as  first 
united  to  the  Eastern  and  then  separated  from  it, 
while  it  was  separated  from  it  to  pass  to  one  who 
was  first  Patrician  of  the  Eomans  and  then  Emperor 
of  the  Bomans,  but  who  would  hardly  have  called 
himself  personally  a  Eoman,  the  Eastern  lands  of 
Eome  were  ruled  in  unbroken  succession  by  princes 


118  THE  DIVIDED  EMPIRE. 

following  one  another  in  the  same  Imperial  seat,  any- 
one of  whom  would  have  been  amazed  indeed  if  his 
right  to  the  Eoman  name  had  been  disputed.    Prince 
and  people  alike  clave  to  that  name  and  knew  no 
other ;  and  Romans  they  were,  not  in  the  same  sense 
as  the   first  settlers  on   the  Palatine,  not  even  in 
the   same    sense    as   the    Volscian    Cicero   and   the 
Spaniard  Trajan;  but  in  the   sense  in  which  their 
forefathers  had  become  Romans  by  the  edict  of  Anto- 
ninus.    They  were   Romans  by  the  same  right  as 
Theodosius  when  he  came  as  a  second  Trajan  from 
Spain,  as  Jovius  himself  when  he  came  from  the  land 
that  should  be  Tzernagora.  It  would  have  been  hard 
to  find  a  Roman  pedigree  for  Justinian  ;  but  neither 
would  it  have  been  easy  to  find  one  for  Aurelian. 
The  Greek— not  the  pure  HeUen  of  old  but  the  Greek 
of  the  airtificial  nation  formed  by  Macedonian  con- 
quest— had  the  same  right  to  the  Roman  name  which 
the  Gaul  had  ;  so  to  be  sure  had  the  Syrian  and  the 
Egyptian.     But  then  the  "Syrian  and  the  Egyptian 
could  hardly  be  said  to  accept  the  gift ;  under  the 
guise  of  natioji^ll  creeds,  creeds  that  were  deemed 
heretical  by  the  orthodoxy   of  either   Rome,   they 
clave  to  an  elder  national  being  which  was  neither 
Greek  nor  Roman,  and  they  fell  away  from  their 
Roman  allegiance  to  become  not  wholly  unwilling 
subjects   of  the    Saracen.     The  very  losses   of  the 
Empire,  the  cutting   off  of  its   Eastern   provinces, 
helped,  not  indeed  to  make  the  Empire  more  Roman, 
but   to   make   Roman   and   Greek  more  thoroughly 
words  of  the  same  meaning  within  its  Eastern  pro- 


GREEK  SIDE  OF  THE  EASTERN  EMPIRE.       119 

vinces.  In  the  course  of  the  seventh  century,  the 
Oriental  lands  of  Syria  and  Egypt,  the  Latin  lands  of 
Spain  and  Africa,  were  finally  torn  away  from  the 
Empire.  Part  of  Latin  Italy  had  already  passed  to 
the  Lombard ;  the  rest  now  followed  it  to  form  the 
kernel  of  the  new  Eoman  Empire  of  the  West.  The 
result  of  aU  this  was  that,  from  Sicily  to  Tauros,  the 
subjects  left  to  the  Empire,  the  Komans  of  the  East, 
were  almost  wholly  men  of  Greek  speech  and  of  what 
we  have  called  artificial  Greek  nationality.  Within 
the  Eastern  Empire  the  artificial  Greek  nation  and 
the  artificial  Eoman  nation  seemed  to  have  become 
the  same  thing.  Every  Greek  was  a  Eoman ;  it 
seemed  as  if  every  Eoman  was  a  Greek.  It  was  not 
wholly  so;  even  within  the  Eastern  peninsula  the 
Albanian  and  the  Eouman  nationalities  were  stUl  to 
show  themselves.  But  to  all  appearance  the  Eoman 
lands  of  the  East  were  as  purely  Greek-speaking 
lands  as  the  Eoman  lands  of  the  West  were  Latin- 
speaking  lands.  If  the  Western  Empire  became 
German,  it  was  by  choosing  a  German  king  and  in 
some  sort  adopting  his  German  subjects.  If  the 
Eastern  Empire  became  Greek,  it  was  because  the 
un-Greek  parts  were  lopped  off  from  it.  To  this 
process  the  finishing  stroke  was  put  by  the  event 
of  800.  Latin  Italy  then  parted,  even  in  name, 
from  its  allegiance  to  the  Eastern  Eome.  The  prince 
who  reigned  at  Constantinople  was  by  the  truest 
political  succession  Emperor  of  the  Eomans  ;  but  the 
Eomans  who  were  left  for  him  to  rule  over  were  well 
nigh  wholly  Greek. 


120  THE  DIVIDED  EMPIRE. 

In  this  way  therefore,  and  largely  by  virtue  of  the 
same  act,  the  Eastern  Empire  became  Greek,  while  the 
Western  Empire  became  German.  The  one  became 
Greek  through  one  of  its  old  elements  obtaining  an 
exclusive  predominance ;  the  other  became  German 
by  bringing  in  an  element  altogether  new.  But  in 
becoming  severally  German  and  Greek,  neither  ceased 
to  be  Eoman.  The  Koman  spirit  might  die  out ;  but 
the  Koman  succession  went  on ;  the  Roman  tradition 
was  never  broken.  In  the  East  the  tie  to  the  Roman 
past  was  never  snapped ;  if  it  passed  away,  it  was 
because  the  Romans  of  the  East  seemed  almost 
to  forget  that  there  had  ever  been  any  Romans 
but  themselves  or  any  Rome  but  their  own.  In 
the  West,  on  the  other  hand,  the  tie  to  the  Roman 
past  was  never  formally  snapped  any  more  than 
in  the  East ;  but  it  passed  away  because  it  was 
overshadowed  and  stifled  by  the  un-Roman  institu- 
tions that  grew  up  by  the  side  of  it.  The  Augustus 
of  the  East  was  Emperor  of  the  Romans  and  nothing 
more ;  it  was  strange  that  the  diadem  of  Jovius  should 
be  conferred  by  a  Christian  unction,  but  what  the 
Christian  unction  of  the  East  did  confer  was  the 
diadem  of  Jovius  and  none  other.  The  Augustus  of 
the  West  was  also  King  of  Germany,  of  Italy,  and 
of  Burgundy;  Aachen,  Milan,  Aries,  had  their  share 
in  making  him  as  well  as  the  Eternal  City.  Take 
away  the  German,  the  Italian,  and  the  Burgundian 
realms,  and  it  might  be  hard  to  find  on  the  map  the 
lands  over  which  Csesar  ruled  purely  in  his  character 
of  Csesar.     Again,  in  the  East,  wherever  the  Emperor 


THE  IMPERIAL  POWER  IN  EAST  AND  WEST.    121 

reigned  at  all,  lie  truly  reigned.  Did  the  Empire 
reach  once  more  from  Ister  to  Orontes,  from  Ararat  to 
-^tna "?  Was  it  shut  up  within  a  corner  of  Thrace  and 
a  fragment  of  the  coast  of  Asia  ?  In  either  case,  be 
the  Empire  great  or  small,  be  its  sovereign  the  mighty 
Macedonian  or  the  trembling  Palaiologos,  wherever  he 
was  sovereign  at  all,  he  was  /Sao-iXeJ?  and  avroKpdrwp  in 
the  fullest  sense.  In  the  West,  through  the  growth  of 
a  new  set  of  ideas  and  institutions,  the  Emperor,  still 
keeping  all  his  titles,  all  his  formal  dignity,  still  wor- 
shipped with  a  ceremonial  only  less  stately  than  that 
of  his  Eastern  brother,  gradually  sank  into  a  mere 
chief  of  unruly  feudatories,  into  a  mere  President, 
it  might  seem,  of  a  Confederation  in  which  every 
member  was  stronger  than  the  head.  An  Eastern 
Emperor  might  expect  to  be  slain  or  blinded  to  make 
room  for  another ;  but,  while  he  kept  his  life  and 
his  eyes,  his  will  was  undisputed.  A  Western 
Emperor  was  commonly  free  from  such  extreme 
changes  of  fortune.  A  few  only  died  on  the  battle- 
field or  by  private  murder,  and  those  few  at  least 
enjoyed  the  light  of  heaven  till  their  last  moments. 
But  while  they  reigned,  while  men  called  them  Lords 
of  the  World,  Yicars  of  the  Almighty,  if  they  loved 
the  truth  of  power  rather  than  its  show,  they  might 
have  been  tempted  to  envy  the  smallest  of  their 
vassals  who  within  a  few  roods  of  ground  did  without 
let  or  hindrance  that  which  was  right  in  his  own  eyes. 

I  have  been  drawn  on,  almost  in  spite  of  myself,  to 
paint  somewhat  of  a  picture  of  the  main  features 


122  THE  DIVIDED  EMPIRE. 

which  distinguished  the  Eastern  and  Western  Em- 
pires after  they  were  finally  split  asunder  by  the  act 
of  the  year  800.  But  a  lecture  on  the  Divided 
Empire  ought  to  do  something  more.  It  ought 
not  to  shrink  from  the  more  prosaic  task  of  sketching 
the  main  facts  of  the  story  in  their  order  and  of 
speaking  a  word  of  warning  against  a  few  notions 
and  forms  of  speech  which  are  likely  to  mislead. 
But  it  may  not  be  useless  to  run  with  a  swift  step 
through  the  revolutions  of  several  centuries,  and  here 
and  there  to  throw  in  a  needful  caution.  And  to 
miderstand  the  Divided  Empire,  it  is  first  needful 
to  cast  a  glance  at  the  Empire  before  it  was  divided. 
We  have  to  hasten  as  far  as  the  thirteenth  century, 
a  century  almost  as  full  of  destiny  as  the  fifth,  but 
to  the  fifth  we  must  first  again  look  back.  We  have 
seen  that  at  its  beginning  the  formal  boundaries  of 
the  Empire  had  hardly  given  way;  Theodosius  had 
reigned  over  at  least  as  wide  a  dominion  as  Jovian ; 
and  his  dominion  had  passed  to  his  sons  reigning  as 
Imperial  colleagues  at  Constantinople  and  at  Ravenna. 
In  the  course  of  that  century  the  Vandal  passes 
through  Gaul  into  Spain ;  he  founds  a  Spanish 
realm,  and  presently  forsakes  it  for  a  somewhat  more 
lasting  dominion  in  Africa.  The  Alan,  marching  at 
his  side,  founds  a  yet  more  momentary  dominion 
in  Spain  and  presently  vanishes  from  the  face  of  the 
earth.  The  third  in  that  great  march,  the  Suevian, 
founds  his  Spanish  realm  also  and  keeps  it  longer 
than  either.  At  the  end  of  the  century  he  still 
holds  his   north-west   comer ;   but  the  rest  of  the 


THE  FIFTH  CENTURY.  123 

peninsula  is  in  the  hands  of  the  West-Goth,  whose 
mighty  kingdom  stretches  over  Gaulish  and  Spanish 
ground  from  the  Loire  to  the  pillars  of  Hercules. 
The  Burgundian  has  spread  himself  from  his  old 
seat  on  the  Rhine  to  the  mouths  of  the  Rhone  and 
the  haven  of  Massalia.  But  the  Roman  name 
has  but  lately  died  away  from  central  and  northern 
Gaul.  Cut  off  from  either  centre  of  Imperial  rule, 
a  Roman  land,  some  say,  strange  as  the  title  sounds, 
a  Roman  kingdom,  has  lingered  on  between  Seine 
and  Loire,  to  yield  at  last  to  the  advance  of  a 
Teutonic  people  who  have  long  played  a  secondary 
part  in  the  affairs  of  Gaul,  but  who  are  now,  in  the 
short  life-time  of  a  single  enterprising  king,  to  spring 
to  a  place  in  the  world  alongside  of  the  Roman  and 
the  Goth.  The  Frank  has  begun  his  march,  eastward, 
westward,  southward,  northward.  For  a  moment  he 
is  the  heathen  lord  of  Catholic  subjects  who  preferred 
the  worshipper  of  Woden  to  the  follower  of  Arius  ; 
he  is  presently  to  change  into  the  one  Catholic  power 
of  the  whole  world,  the  eldest  son  of  the  Church, 
looked  to  through  all  Gaul  as  the  deliverer  of  Catholic 
lands  from  heretical  rulers.  And,  what  concerns 
us  more  than  all,  while  Gaul,  Spain,  Africa,  have 
passed  away  from  the  Empire,  Italy  and  Rome  itself 
have,  in  all  but  name,  passed  away  with  them. 
One  barbarian  patrician  has  yielded  to  another ; 
Theodoric  watches  over  Italy  as  no  Caesar  had 
watched  over  it  for  many  a  year.  A  few  years 
more,  and  his  rule  stretches,  under  one  title  or 
another,  over  the  whole  western  half  of  the  Medi- 


124  THE  DIVIDED  EMPIRE. 

terranean  lands  of  Europe.  Yet  the  Roman  name, 
the  Roman  power,  lives  on  in  its  Eastern  half;  the 
one  Emperor  of  the  Romans  stiU  holds  his  throne 
in  the  Eastern  Rome,  keeping  but  the  shadow  of 
a  barren  title  over  his  elder  capital,  but  biding  his 
time  to  make  that  shadow  a  reality  at  the  first 
favourable  moment. 

So  far  have  we  followed  the  memorable  fifth 
century,  the  century,  I  repeat,  in  whose  first  years, 
if  at  any  time,  modern  history  begins,  the  century 
at  whose  end  the  existing  nations  of  Europe  are  still 
not  in  being,  but  at  whose  beginning  they  have  taken, 
so  to  speak,  the  first  feeble  steps  towards  coming  into 
being.  Let  us  now  glance  at  the  hardly  less  memor- 
able sixth  century,  memorable  in  another  way  from 
the  fifth.  The  sixth  century  is  not  a  creative,  but 
rather  a  reactionary  age,  an  age  which  does  much  to 
hinder  the  growth  of  new  elements,  and  much  to 
bring  back  old  elements  to  a  place  and  a  power 
which  they  had  lost.  Of  all  ages  in  history  the 
sixth  is  the  one  in  which  the  doctrine  that  the 
Roman  Empire  came  to  an  end  at  some  time  in 
the  fifth  sounds  most  grotesque.  Again  the  Roman 
armies  march  to  victory,  to  more  than  victory,  to 
conquest,  to  conquests  more  precious  than  the  con- 
quests of  Caesar  or  of  Trajan,  to  conquests  which  gave 
back  Rome  herself  to  her  own  Augustus.  We  may 
again  be  met  with  the  argument  that  we  have  ourselves 
used  so  often ;  that  the  Empire  had  to  win  back  its 
lost  provinces  does  indeed  prove  that  it  had  lost 
them  ;  but  no  one  seeks  to  prove  that  the  provinces 


THE  SIXTH  CENTURY.  125 

had  not  been  lost ;  what  the  world  is  loth  to  under- 
stand is  that  there  was  still  life  enough  in  the  Koman 
power  to  win  them  back  again.  I  say  the  Eoman 
power ;  what  if  I  said  the  Koman  commonwealth  1 
It  may  startle  some  to  hear  that  in  the  sixth  century, 
nay  in  the  seventh,  the  most  common  name  for  the 
Empire  of  Kome  is  still  "  respublica."  No  epithet  is 
needed;  there  is  no  need  to  say  that  the  "res- 
publica" spoken  of  is  "respublica  Eomana."  It  is 
the  Bepubhc  which  wins  back  Italy,  Africa,  and 
Southern  Spain  from  their  Teutonic  masters.  It 
is  the  Eepublic  which  beats  back  from  the  ransomed 
lands  the  new  attacks  of  the  Frank  and  the  Alaman. 
If  Gregory  the  Great  stoops  to  flatter  the  murderer 
Phocas,  he  warns  him  also — strange  as  the  words 
sound  to  us — that,  while  the  kings  of  the  nations  rule 
over  slaves,  the  Emperors  of  the  Republic  rule  over 
freemen.  We  must  indeed  beware  of  bringing  in  ideas 
which  belong  wholly  to  modern  controversy ;  there  is 
nothing  in  the  word  "respublica,"  nothing  in  the 
word  "  commonwealth,"  nothing  in  the  use  of  those 
words  down  to  a  very  recent  date,  which  shuts  out 
the  possibility  of  a  commonwealth  having  a  prince, 
Emperor  or  king,  as  its  chief  ruler.  The  point  of  the 
employment  of  the  word  lies  in  this,  that  it  marks 
the  unbroken  being  of  the  Roman  state ;  in  the  eyes 
of  the  men  of  the  sixth  century  the  power  which  won 
back  the  African  province  in  their  own  day  was  the 
same  power  which  had  first  won  it  well  nigh  seven 
hundred  years  before.  The  consul  Belisarius  was  the 
true   successor  of  the   consul    Scipio.     Again  the 


126  THE  DIVIDED  EMPIRE. 

Eoman  power  stretches  from  the  Ocean  to  the 
Euphrates  ;  the  mighty  volume  of  the  Eoman  law 
is  unrolled  alike  for  the  Syrian  and  the  Spaniard. 
The  whole  Mediterranean  coast  is  again  the  seaboard 
of  Kome,  save  where  the  West-Goth  still  keeps  his 
hold  on  Septimania  and  Northern  Spain,  save  where 
the  Empire  has  itself  yielded  the  coast  from  Khone 
to  the  Alps  to  the  Frankish  lords  of  Gaul  who  have 
wiped  out  the  power  of  the  Burgundian  and  cut 
short  the  West-Goth  on  Gaulish  soil.  The  common 
teaching  on  these  matters  is  so  wretched  that  I 
believe  we  all  of  us  feel — I  still  feel  myself — a 
certain  feeling  of  strangeness  and  incongruity  at  the 
mere  picture  of  the  revived  Empu-e  of  the  sixth 
century.  Or  if  strangeness  and  incongruity  are 
words  too  strong,  we  at  least  feel  that  it  is  a  truth 
which  needs  asserting,  asserting,  it  may  be,  tiU  times 
seventy  times  seven,  in  the  ears  of  the  unlearned 
and  unbelieving.  To  look  on  it,  as  the  men  of  the 
time  looked  on,  as  the  restoration  of  a  lawful  order 
of  things  which  had  been  violently  interrupted  is 
one  of  the  hardest  of  historic  lessons. 

But  there  is  no  popular  delusion  which  does  not 
contain  some  measure  of  truth,  however  disguised 
and  distorted.  No  way  of  speaking  can  be  more 
misleading  than  that  which  is  still  employed,  even  by 
some  eminent  scholars,  of  speaking  of  the  Empire  of 
Justinian,  of  the  armies  of  Justinian,  as  Greek.  It  is 
not  only  formally  wrong,  but  it  does  not  in  any  way 
express  the  facts.  Even  before  the  reconquest  of  the 
West,  the  Greek  element  was  far  indeed  from  being 


USE  OF  THE  NAME  GREEK.  127 

the  exclusive,  it  was  hardly  the  predominant,  element 
in  the  Empire  ;  and  to  apply  the  name  to  the  enlarged 
Empire,  largely  inhabited  by  a  Latin  population,  which 
Justinian  passed  on  to  his  successors  is  more  mislead- 
ing still.  And  in  the  army  above  all,  made  up  from 
all  manner  of  warlike  tribes  within  and  without  the 
Empire,  the  proportion  of  men  who  were  in  any  sense 
of  Greek  birth,  even  the  proportion  of  men  to  whom 
Greek  was  their  native  speech,  must  have  been  small 
indeed.  Yet  we  have  the  memorable  fact,  showing 
itself  in  the  narrative  of  Procopius  and  in  the  very 
beginnings  of  English  Hterature,  that  both  on  Gothic 
and  on  English  Hps  the  subjects  of  the  Emperor  who 
reigned  at  Constantinople  were  spoken  of  as  Greeks. 
No  wonder ;  the  Goths,  marching  to  and  fro  in  the 
eastern  peninsula,  must  have  heard  more  Greek  spoken 
than  any  other  tongue  ;  so  must  the  first  of  EngHsh 
travellers,  be  the  travels  of  the  singer  of  the  song  real 
or  imaginary.  And  the  name  was  given  almost  by  a 
prophetic  instinct,  as  if  the  Goth,  unfettered  by  Koman 
traditions,  saw  that  an  Empire  of  which  Byzantium 
was  the  head,  if  not  Greek  already,  must  some  day 
become  such.  What  if  Justinian  had  seen  that  fact 
and  had  acted  on  it?  What  if  he  had  grasped  his 
position  as  before  all  things  lord  of  the  great  eastern 
peninsula  of  Europe  and  the  great  western  peninsula 
of  Asia,  lord  that  is  of  lands  still  partly  Latin,  but  far 
more  widely  Greek  1  What  if  he  had  given  his  whole 
mind  to  the  defence  of  his  northern  frontier  against 
Slavonic  and  Hunnish  invaders,  and  had  left  the 
Teutonic  and  Latin  elements  in  Italy,  Spain,  and 


128  THE  DIVIDED  EMPIRE. 

Africa  to  settle  themselves  as  they  settled  themselves 
in  Gaul  %  It  may  well  be  that  such  a  course  would 
have  been  the  wiser ;  looking  at  the  matter  with  the 
light  of  thirteen  later  centuries,  we  are  strongly 
tempted  to  say  that  so  it  would  have  been.  But  we 
must  remember  that  the  light  of  those  thirteen  later 
centuries  could  give  no  help  to  the  minds  of  men 
whose  destiny  had  fixed  them  in  the  sixth  century. 
As  Justinian  or  any  man  of  his  age  must  have  looked 
on  the  world  of  the  sixth  century,  an  Emperor  of  the 
Komans,  reigning  in  the  New  Eome  but  shut  out 
from  the  Old,  must  not  only  have  been  tempted  by 
every  feeling  of  ambition,  he  must  have  honestly 
felt  it  as  the  highest  of  his  Imperial  duties,  to  win 
back  the  lost  lands  of  Eome,  to  win  back  Eome  her- 
self, for  the  Eoman  commonwealth  of  which  he  found 
himself  the  head. 

The  great  revival  of  the  Empire  in  the  sixth 
century  was  but  the  first  of  a  long  series  of  revivals 
which  marked  the  history  of  the  power  whose  head 
was  at  Constantinople  down  to  its  latest  stages.  In 
its  long  annals,  the  successors  of  Cassar  and  Trajan, 
the  men  who  extend  the  borders  of  the  Empire  over 
new  lands,  are  far  from  wholly  lacking ;  the  successors 
of  Yalentinian  and  Belisarius,  the  men  who  win  back 
the  lost  lands,  are  never  lacking  down  to  the  last 
generation  of  the  Palaiologoi.  But  the  first  and 
greatest  burst  of  this  power  of  springing  to  new  life 
was  that  which  came  while  the  Empire  still  was  one, 
when  Belisarius,  dehverer  of  Africa  and  Sicily,  sent 
the  keys  of  ransomed  Eome  to  her  own  Emperor. 


NO  EASTERN  TILL  THERE  IS  A  WESTERN.     129 

True,  as  we  have  seen,  a  large  part  of  Italy  was  lost 
again  before  the  century  was  out ;  the  Spanish  pro- 
vince  passed  away  early  in  the  next  century ;  but  the 
successors  of  Justinian  still  ruled  at  Carthage  till  the 
last  years  of  the  seventh  century;  they  still  ruled,  in 
name  at  least,  at  Kome  till  the  last  year  of  the  eighth* 
No  confusion  can  be  greater  or  more  misleading  than 
that  which  looks  on  the  Empire  of  Tiberius,  Maurice, 
and  Heraclius  as  something  strange  and  anomalous, 
something  to  be  labelled  as  Eastern,  Byzantine,  per- 
haps Greek,  to  be  called  anything  in  short  but  its 
true  name  of  Koman.  Never,  I  would  say  to  all 
of  you,  use  the  words  "Eastern"  or  "Byzantine,"  till 
there  is  something  Western  to  oppose  to  them.  You 
may  distinguish  Nikephoros  as  the  Eastern  Emperor 
as  opposed  to  the  Western  Emperor  Charles  ;  but 
never  speak  of  Maurice  or  Heraclius  as  anything  but 
the  sole  Koman  Emperor  that  he  was.  Still  in  thd 
days  of  Herachus  the  process  begins  which  was  to 
leave  the  Empire  of  Nikephoros,  if  not  a  Greek  power, 
at  least  a  power  fast  hastening  to  become  Greek.  The 
mightiest  of  Imperial  warriors,  he  who  overleaped  the 
fame  of  Trajan  to  renew  the  fame  of  Alexander,  the 
deliverer  of  Kome,  the  conqueror  of  Persia,  the  man 
who  brought  back  the  holiest  of  Christian  relics  from 
its  heathen  bondage,  Hved  to  be  the  man  who  saw 
Sjrria  and  Egypt  lopped  away  from  his  Empire,  who 
saw  the  Holy  City  that  he  had  redeemed  pass  away 
into  the  hands  of  misbelievers  yet  more  terrible  than 
those  whom  he  had  overthrown.  It  may  be  that  the 
Empire  gained  even  by  these  fearful  losses ;  it  is 

K 


130  THE  DIVIDED  EMPIRE. 

plain  that  after  its  Oriental  and  its  Latin  provinces 
are  lost,  it  begins  to  put  on  somewhat  of  the  strength 
of  a  national  power,  even  though  that  power  had 
no  thought  of  its  own  nationality.  It  may  even 
be  that  the  great  Isaurian  Emperors  of  the  eighth 
century  let  the  remnant  of  Latin  Italy  slip  from  their 
hands  almost  without  an  effort,  because  they  saw  that 
a  dominion  which  was  becoming  foreign  to  the  great 
mass  of  the  Empire  was  no  true  source  of  strength. 
To  reign  from  Hsemus  to  Tauros,  to  be  lord  at  Tre- 
bizond  and  at  Syracuse,  to  beat  back  the  Bulgarian  in 
Europe  and  the  Saracen  in  Asia — it  was  no  mean 
task,  no  easy  task,  which  feU  to  the  lot  of  the  "  effete" 
"  Greek  of  the  Lower  Empire ; "  he  might  well  deem 
that  he  had  work  enough  to  do  in  the  lands  which 
naturally  looked  up  to  the  New  Kome,  and  that  he 
might  leave  the  Old  to  set  up  again  for  itself,  if  such 
was  its  own  good  pleasure. 

Set  up  for  itself  it  did,  as  we  have  already  seen; 
but  it  set  up  for  itself  mainly  to  deck  a  German 
king  and  a  German  kingdom  with  its  own  Koman 
memories.  Charles,  like  Theodoric,  had  called  into 
being  a  system  which  it  needed  himself  to  work. 
He  could  be  at  once  German  King  and  Eoman 
Caesar  in  deed  as  well  as  in  name.  His  immediate 
successors  found  it  hard  to  be  either.  By  the  end 
of  the  ninth  century  the  great  Frankish  dominion 
was  broken  in  pieces ;  the  crown  of  the  Western 
Rome  passed,  now  to  a  prince  of  Italy,  now  to 
a  prince  of  Germany,  now  to  a  prince  of  Gaul. 
Under    the    second  Lewis    Italy   came    nearer   to 


THE  GERMAN  EMPERORS.  ISf 

forming  an  united  and  separate  realm  than  she 
did  at  any  other  moment  between  Theodoric  and 
Victor  Emmanuel.  For  that  moment  there  seemed 
a  chance — that  is,  we,  a  thousand  years  after 
the  time,  see  that  there  was  a  chance  —  that 
there  might  be,  not  a  German,  but  an  Italian  Em- 
pire of  the  Western  Eome,  to  match  the  Greek 
Empire  of  the  Eastern  Eome.  But  it  was  fated 
that  the  traditions  of  the  Western  Rome  should 
neither  abide  in  Italy  with  Lewis  and  Berengar 
nor  pass  into  Gaul  with  Charles  the  Bald.  The 
German  King,  the  Saxon  King,  the  first  of  the 
Ottos,  came  down  to  receive  the  crown  of  Rome 
as  a  deliverer,  to  pass  it  on  to  a  grandson  who 
seemed  for  a  moment  to  have  the  mission,  not  only 
of  reviving  the  Roman  power,  but  of  making  the 
elder  Rome  herself  once  more  the  local  seat  of 
Imperial  dominion. 

Vivo  Ottone  tertio,  .^ 

Salus  fuit  populo. 

But  the  "mirabilia  mundi"  passed  to  an  early 
grave ;  the  true  work  of  his  house  was,  not  to 
restore  the  local  power  of  Rome,  but  to  fix  that 
the  Western  Empire  of  Rome,  the  now  Holy  Roman 
Empire,  should  be,  down  to  the  moment  of  its  last 
shadowy  being,  a  Roman  Empire  of  the  German 
nation.  It  is  that  Empire,  the  Empire  of  the  Ottos,, 
the  Henries,  and  the  Fredericks,  the  Empire  to 
whose  worthiest  chief  men  could  pay  their  tribute 
of  renewed  Saturnian  song ; 

Priuceps  terrge  principum,  Caesar  noster,  ave, 
Cujus  jugum  omnibus  bonis  est  suave; 
K  2 


132  THE  DIVIDED  EMPIRE, 

the  Empire  whose  true  power  and  glory  was  buried 
in  the  grave  of  "Fridericus  stupor  mundi,"  but 
whose  shadow  lived  on  to  inspire  the  heart  of  Dante, 
whose  traditions  lived  on  to  win  for  the  Imperial 
name  one  flash  of  seeming  might  in  the  days  of 
Henry  of  Luxemburg,  one  flash  more  dazzling  still 
in  the  days  of  that  Charles  who  was  the  last  to 
take  its  crown,  though  not  in  the  old  crowning- 
place  of  the  first  —  it  is  this  great  fact  of  all 
European  history,  the  fact  whose  greatness  has  been 
so  well  proclaimed  by  a  scholar  and  statesman  of 
whom  this  University  is  proud,  which  has  now  to 
divide  our  thoughts  with  that  other  side  of  the 
divided  Koman  power  whose  annals,  for  some  ages 
at  least  as  glorious,  were  wound  up  by  a  far  more 
glorious  end.  As  the  warrior's  death  of  the  last 
Constantino  is  another  tale  from  the  self-abasement 
of  the  last  Francis,  so  in  the  brighter  days  of 
either  power  we  may  claim  for  the  Empire  of 
the  Macedonians  at  least  an  equal  place  in  the 
world  alongside  of  the  Empire  of  the  Old-Saxons. 
While  the  third  Otto  was  dreaming  of  the  coming 
glories  of  the  Old  Rome,  the  second  Basil  was 
filHng  the  New  with  the  trophies  of  all  lands 
from  the  Danube  to  the  Orontes,  from  the  Pharos 
of  Messana  to  the  roots  of  Caucasus.  And  let  us 
pause  for  a  moment  to  think  once  more  what  might 
have  been.  What  if  the  Slayer  of  the  Bulgarians 
had  failed  in  his  sternest  struggle,  when  he  and 
his  Empire  strove,  year  after  year,  locked  tight  in 
the   death-grapple   with   rivals    worthy  of   themi 


THE  EMPIRE  AND  ISLAM.  133 

What  if  Samuel  of  Ochrida,  and  not  Baldwin  of 
Bruges  or  Mahomet  of  Brusa,  had  made  his  way 
within  the  walls  of  Constantinople,  on  an  errand 
matching  the  errand  of  the  first  Otto  in  the  West, 
to  make  the  Imperial  city  abide  for  ever  a  seat  of 
Christian  rule,  as  the  head  of  a  Koman  Empire  of  the 
Slavonic  Nation  ? 

One  question  now  comes  which  might  well  have 
come  sooner.  In  the  days  of  the  Divided  Empire, 
when  Europe  and  Christendom  had  two  rival  heads, 
how  did  either  bear  itself  towards  the  greatest  work 
of  all,  the  special  calling  of  Europe  and  of  Christen-* 
dom  1  How  did  the  Csesars  of  East  and  West  bear 
themselves  in  the  Eternal  Question  of  the  world's 
history  1  The  Persian  victories  of  Heraclius  were 
the  last  work,  the  last  glories,  we  might  almost 
say  the  greatest  and  noblest  glories,  of  the  undivided 
Empire.  The  next  moment  the  Eternal  Question 
put  on  that  more  fearful  and  more  abiding  shape 
which  it  still  bears  in  our  own  day.  The  two  Semitic 
creeds,  the  most  antagonistic  of  all  creeds  simply 
because  they  have  so  much  in  common,  the  creed 
of  Rome  and  the  West,  the  creed  of  Arabia  and  the 
East,  stood  forth  as  new  badges  for  each  side,  badges 
under  which  each  side  drew  new  life  for  the  eternal 
struggle.  Syria  and  Egypt,  which  had  little  to  lose 
by  falling  away,  fell  away,  as  we  have  seen,  in  a 
moment ;  Latin  Africa,  which  had  much  to  lose, 
fought  on  for  sixty  years ;  the  Roman  strove  more 
manfully  for   Carthage  than  the   Goth  strove   for 


134  THE  DIVIDED  EMPIRE. 

Spain  and  Septimania.  But  Africa  was  lost  for 
ever;  the  unconquerable  lands  of  northern  Spain, 
the  Tzernagora  of  the  West,  bred  up  a  line  of  heroes 
to  win  back  their  own  land  from  the  intruder.  The 
Frank,  Hammer  in  hand,  crushed  the  enemy  before 
he  crossed  the  border  stream  of  Loire  ;  and  the  first 
king  of  the  new  line  won  a  higher  glory  than  that 
of  Frankish  king  and  Eoman  patrician  by  ending 
the  short  rule  of  the  Mussulman  around  the  temple 
and  the  arena  of  Nlmes  and  on  the  tower-crowned 
hill  of  Carcassonne.  Nor  did  the  New  Eome  fail 
in  the  work ;  vainly  did  the  last  companions  of 
the  Prophet  strive  to  win  the  fulfilment  of  his 
promise  that  the  sins  of  the  first  believing  army 
that  entered  the  city  of  the  Caesars  should  be  for- 
given. As  the  Persian  had  been  beaten  back  in 
the  days  of  Heraclius,  so  was  the  Arab  beaten  back 
in  the  days  of  his  descendants.  Again  he  came; 
but  the  strong  arm  of  the  Isaurian  Leo  again  saved 
the  New  Eome  and  the  whole  world  of  Christendom. 
The  strife  of  the  old  days  came  again  in  Sicily; 
again  Europe  and  Africa,  again  Aryan  and  Semitic 
man — Aryan  men  who  spoke  the  tongue  of  Greece 
and  Semitic  men  who  ruled  where  Carthage  had 
twice  been — strove,  in  the  cycle  of  the  ages,  for  the 
island  that  was  called  on  to  be  the  meeting-place, 
the  battle-field,  of  creeds  and  tongues  and  nations. 
Sicily  was  lost,  yet  Tauromenion  on  its  height, 
looking  down  on  the  Ebbsfleet  of  Hellenic  Sicily, 
held  out  for  almost  a  hundred  years ;  short  indeed 
were  the  two  intervals  when  the  Infidel  could  boast 


THE  SARACEN  AND  THE  TURKS.  135 

himself  master  of  the  whole  of  that  memorable  island. 
If  Tauromenion  and  Eametta  fell  at  last,  the  sword 
of  George  Maniakds  was  soon  to  be  sharpening;  if 
Syracuse  was  won  and  lost  again,  the  sword  of 
Norman  Boger  was  already  sharpening  for  a  deliver- 
ance more  abiding. 

Long  and  stem  indeed  was  the  strife  which  the 
Romans  of  the  East  had  to  wage  to  guard  Tauros 
against  the  Saracen,  while  they  had  to  wage  a  strife 
no  less  abiding  to  guard  Haemus  against  the  Bul- 
garian. But  as  long  as  the  Saracen  alone  had  to  be 
striven  against,  the  work  was  done.  Then  came  the 
day  of  reconquest,  the  days  of  Nikdphoros  Phokas,  of 
John  Tzimisk^s,  of  the  awful  Basil  himself.  The 
eleventh  century  begins  as  the  greatest  century  of 
Byzantine  history;  before  its  end  a  new  enemy  has 
come ;  the  Asiatic  side  of  the  Eternal  Question  has 
passed  to  a  new  champion;  what  the  Arab  failed 
to  do,  the  Turk  has  begun  to  do  indeed.  The  Bo- 
mania  of  Asia  has  ceased  to  be  a  Christian  land  of  the 
Empire  ;  but  a  Boman  land  it  seems  hardly  to  cease  to 
be,  while  Nikaia,  birthplace  of  Christian  orthodoxy, 
destined  in  after  times  to  be  the  seat  of  the  most 
vigorous  of  Eastern  survivals  of  the  Eoman  power, 
holds  the  throne  of  a  Mussulman,  the  throne  of  a 
Turk,  but  a  Mussulman  and  a  Turk  whose  style  is 
Sultan  of  Bome. 

Hurried  indeed  is  the  glance  that  is  all  that  we 
can  take  of  the  Empire  thus  spHt  asunder  between 
two  rivals.     The  true  power  and  greatness  of  both 


136  THE  DIVIDED  EMPIRE. 

come  to  an  end  in  tlie  great  age  of  creation  and  de- 
struction, the  thirteenth  century  of  our  sera.  In  the 
West,  the  Roman  Empire  and  the  German  kingdom  do 
not  indeed  come  to  a  formal  end,  but  they  lose  their 
ancient  place  beside  the  grave  of  Frederick  the  Second. 
In  the  East,  the  Empire,  as  a  local  power,  gains  a  new 
lease  of  national  strength,  but  it  loses  its  oecumenical 
position  when  the  Latin  reigns  at  Constantinople, 
when  the  'PwyuaFo?,  however  we  translate  his  name, 
reigns  beyond  the  Bosporos  at  Nikaia.  Thus  far  we 
have  had  still  to  deal  with  the  true  and  ancient  sub- 
stance of  the  Empire,  even  if  parted  asunder  into  two 
bodies.  We  shaU  have  next  to  speak  of  powers  which 
kept  on  its  name  and  its  traditions,  but  which  in 
sober  truth  we  can  hardly  look  on  as  more  than  its 
shadows  and  survivals. 


LECTURE  V. 

SURVIYALS  OF  EMPIRE. 

I  DEEW  a  distinction  in  my  last  lecture  between  two 
stages  in  the  dying  out  of  the  Roman  power  and  its 
traditions.  There  were  times  when  the  two  Empires 
of  East  and  West,  however  changed  their  character 
from  what  it  had  been  in  earlier  times,  however  far 
they  had  gone,  the  one  to  become  Greek,  the  other 
to  become  German,  might  still  be  held  to  keep  the 
essence  of  their  old  Roman  being.  And  there  were 
later  times  when  the  names  and  traditions  of  Rome 
still  lingered  on,  but  when  they  could  not  be  looked 
on  as  more  than  shadows  and  survivals.  I  wish  it  of 
course  to  be  understood  that  this  division  between 
these  times  is  an  arbitrary  line  of  my  own  drawing. 
In  the  West  at  least  it  does  not  answer  to  any  such 
marked  epoch  as  the  event  of  800,  the  event  of  1453, 
the  event  of  1 806.  I  drew  the  line  at  the  death  of 
Frederick  the  Second.  We  shall,  I  think,  all  allow 
that,  if  Frederick  the  Second  represents  a  state  of 
things  which  had  become  very  unlike  the  state  of 
things  under  Trajan  or  even  under  Constantino, 
Francis  the  Second  represents  a  state  of  things  at 
least  as  unlike  the  state  of  things  under  Frederick. 
But  it  does  not  follow  that,  if  a  line  is  to  be  drawn, 
every  one  would  draw  it  at  the  death  of  Frederick. 


138  SURVIVALS  OF  EMPIRE. 

It  might  be  said  that  the  Empire  had  become  a  mere 
German  state  before  his  day,  that  the  position  of 
Frederick  was  exceptional,  that  his  importance  in 
Italian  affairs  really  belonged  to  the  King  of  Sicily 
and  not  to  the  llmperor  of  the  Romans,  that  the 
career  even  of  his  grandfather  showed  that  in  his 
time  the  Roman  claims  of  the  German  kings  had 
become  thoroughly  unreal,  and  rested  wholly  on  the 
strength  of  their  German  armies.  Another  might 
draw  the  line  much  later ;  he  might  say  that  the  true 
Empire  passed  away  when  an  Emperor,  a  third 
Frederick  most  unlike  the  First  and  Second,  took  his 
crown  for  the  last  time  before  the  altar  of  old  Saint 
Peter's.  He  might  draw  it  when  that  Frederick's  son 
took  an  Imperial  style,  though  to  be  sure  with  a 
qualifying  adjective,  without  any  show  of  Imperial 
crowning.  Or  he  might  draw  it  when  the  last  Im- 
jperator,  successor  of  the  first  Im^erator  electus,  took 
the  crown  of  the  Empire,  not  before  the  altar  of  Saint 
Peter  at  Rome,  but  before  the  altar  of  Saint  Petronius 
at  Bologna.  The  last  is  indeed  an  epoch-making 
moment;  Charles  the  Fifth  does  seem  to  wind  up 
with  some  fitting  dignity  that  Imperial  line  which 
began  with  Charles  the  Great.  And  as  the  last 
Emperor,  as  distinguished  from  Emperors- elect,  he 
does  truly  wind  it  up.  The  gap  between  Charles 
and  Ferdinand  is  in  truth  a  wide  one.  But  surely 
there  is  a  still  wider  gap  between  Frederick  the 
Wonder  of  the  World  and  princes  like  William  of 
Holland,  Richard  of  Cornwall,  and  even,  when  looked 
on  from  the  Imperial  side,  as  Rudolf  of  Habsburg. 


TEE  WESTERN  EMPERORS  AFTER  FREDERICK.  139 

Eudolf  is  indeed  different  from  William  and  Richard ; 
he  is  great  and  famous  as  German  King;  but  the 
line  of  Emperors  knows  him  not.  The  fact  that  the 
man  whom  we  may  call  the  restorer  of  the  German 
kingdom  never  sought  the  Imperial  crown  seems  of 
itself  to  point  to  the  reign  of  the  last  Emperor  before 
him,  even  if  that  Emperor  had  not  been  Frederick 
the  Second,  as  the  time  when  the  Empire,  as  a  power 
in  itself,  and  not  simply  as  a  lofty  title,  a  mighty 
memory,  came  to  an  end.  Under  Charles  the  Fifth 
the  Empire  seems  to  spring  again  to  the  fulness  of 
its  ancient  power ;  but  his  abdication  and  death  re- 
vealed a  truth.  When  his  titles  of  Empire  passed 
to  Ferdinand  and  his  European  position  passed  to 
Philip,  it  became  clear  that,  however  the  titles  of 
Empire  might  make  the  position  of  Charles  more 
brilliant,  his  might  had  not  really  been  the  might  of 
the  Empire,  but  the  might  of  Burgimdy  and  Castile. 
The  line,  wherever  we  draw  it,  is  an  arbitrary  one, 
unmarked  either  by  formal  changes  or  by  events  of 
the  first  greatness.  I  think  we  shall  all  agree  that 
the  Peace  of  Constanz  and  the  Peace  of  Westfalia 
are  the  acts  of  a  power  which  in  the  earlier  time  still 
kept  much  of  a  really  Roman  position,  while  in  the 
later  time  all  truly  Roman  character  had  passed  from 
it.  The  change  between  the  two  states  of  things  is 
gradual ;  at  what  point  between  the  two  we  choose 
to  draw  the  line  is  largely  matter  of  opinion,  one 
might  say  rather  matter  of  taste  or  of  feehng. 

In  the  East  our  case  is  much  clearer.     The  event 
of  1204  is  one  that  stands  out  with  far  greater  dis- 


140  SURVIVALS  OF  EMPIRE. 

tinctness  than  the  event  of  1250.  No  years  in  the 
Byzantine  annals  are  more  honourable  than  those  in 
which  they  for  a  while  cease  to  be  Byzantine.  It  is 
when  the  'l^wixaloi  again  become  Byzantine  that  they 
again  degenerate.  If  the  name  of  Koman  is  to  be  held 
as  an  epithet  of  honour,  at  no  time  did  prince  and 
people  better  deserve  that  name  than  when  they  were 
banished  from  the  New  Kome.  Adversity  brought 
out  vigorous  qualities  indeed  in  the  Emperors  of 
Nikaia  and  their  subjectSi  Yet  the  fact  that  they 
were  Emperors  of  Nikaia  and  not  of  Constantinople 
puts  a  wide  barrier  between  them  and  their  pre- 
decessors. The  life  of  the  Eastern  Empire  had  been 
so  thoroughly  bound  up  in  the  possession  of  the 
Eastern  Eome  that  no  change  could  seem  so  great 
as  that  which  gave  the  Eastern  Eome  to  a  Latin 
stranger.  The  Empire  of  Nikaia  proved  in  the 
end  the  most  vigorous  and  abiding  among  its 
fellows ;  but  it  had  feUows.  It  was  only  one  of 
a  crowd  of  states,  Greek  and  Latin,  into  which  the 
Eoman  Empire  of  the  East  was  broken  in  pieces. 
That  the  old  Empire  was  utterly  broken  in  pieces, 
that  its  old  position  had  wholly  passed  away,  is 
shown  by  unavoidable  changes  in  language.  It  is 
now  indeed  hard  to  avoid  using  the  word  Greek. 
To  be  sure  no  Orthodox  speaker  of  the  Greek 
tongue — that  is  now  the  definition  of  the  artificial 
Greek  nation — dreamed  of  calling  himself  "FiWrjv ; 
the  Greeks,  the  Griffons,  of  Western  speakers  were 
still  everywhere  'Pwnaloi  in  their  own  eyes.  Strange 
indeed  is  the  opposition  of  names  in  these  days. 


TEE  EMPERORS  OF  NIKAIA,  14t 

When  we  find  'Voufxaloi  and  Karlvoi  opposed,  we  seem 
to  be  carried  back  to  the  consulship  of  Manlius  and 
Decius;  when  somewhat  earlier  we  find  a  strife 
between  'Pw/xaFot  and  'AX/3aj/o/,  we  seem  to  be  car- 
ried back  from  the  pages  of  Anna  to  the  pages 
of  Dionysios,  from  the  reign  of  Alexios  to  the  reign 
of  Tullus.  But  now  that  Emperors,  Kings,  Despots, 
Dukes,  Grand-Sires,  outlying  possessions  of  Italian 
commonwealths  and  Italian  families,  have  become 
thick  on  the  ground  and  still  thicker  on  the  waters, 
we  can  hardly  use  any  other  name  than  Greek  to 
distinguish  a  prince  or  a  people  speaking  the  later 
shape  of  the  tongue  of  Hellas  from  princes  and 
people  speaking  the  later  shapes  of  the  tongue  of 
Latium.  When  we  step  within  the  range  of  theo- 
logical controversy,  our  difficulties  become  greater 
stiU.  If  we  keep  to  our  elder  language,  the  special 
badge  of  the  Roman  will  be  that  he  denies  the 
authority  of  the  Roman  Church.  The  Roman  name, 
as  the  formal  name  of  a  power,  ceased  only  in  1453, 
or  rather  in  1461.  The  Roman  name,  as  the  name 
of  a  people,  can  hardly  be  said  to  have  even  now 
passed  away.  But  from  800  onwards  we  may  fairly 
use  such  distinguishing  forms  as  "Eastern"  and 
"Byzantine"  :  from  1204  onwards  we  can  hardly  help 
adopting  the  Western  language  of  the  time,  and 
speaking  of  those  scattered  fragments  of  the  Eastern 
Empire  which  were  still  held  by  its  own  people  as 
"  Greek." 

The   Empire  of  Nikaia  may  seem  to  have  well 
proved  its  right  to  be  looked  on  as  the  true  successor 


142  SURVIVALS  OF  EMPIRE. 

of  the  old  Empire  by  the  great  exploit  of  winning 
back  the  Imperial  city.  For  eight  hundred  years 
we  have  had  to  deal  with  powers  that  win  back 
oftener  than  with  powers  that  can  be  strictly  said 
to  advance;  but  to  win  back  Constantinople  in  the 
thirteenth  century  was  to  gain  a  richer  prize  than 
even  to  win  back  Eome  in  the  sixth.  Without 
Constantinople  an  East- Roman  or  Greek  Empire 
might  seem  to  have  no  position  in  the  face  of  the 
world.  In  possession  of  Constantinople,  it  might 
seem  to  be  brought  back  to  something  like  its  old 
place  among  powers  and  nations.  Still  the  Empire 
of  the  Palaiologoi  was  but  a  feeble  representative, 
a  mere  shadow  and  survival,  not  only  of  the  Empire 
of  the  Macedonians,  but  of  the  Empire  of  the  Kom- 
ndnoi.  For  a  while  it  was  an  advancing  power  in 
Europe ;  even  when  its  northern  frontiers  had  fallen 
back  before  the  Bulgarian,  the  Servian,  the  Ottoman 
himself,  it  could  still  advance  in  the  old  Greek 
lands.  It  showed  the  Byzantine  power  of  revival  in 
its  last  and  strangest  form,  when  the  whole  of 
Peloponn^sos,  bating  the  points  held  by  Venice,  was 
again  united  under  a  Greek  prince.  In  those  days 
it  was  something  for  the  Roman  Empire  to  outHve 
the  principahty  of  Achaia,  days  when  the  Isle  of 
Pelops  formed  the  main  body  of  an  Empire  of  which 
the  city  of  Constantuie  was  the  distant  head.  If 
the  last  Emperor  of  the  West  took  his  crown  at 
Bologna,  the  last  Emperor  of  the  East  took  his  on 
the  spot  which  had  been  Sparta.  But  "Emperor  of 
the  East"  I  should  not  say.  That  is  one  of  the  many 


VARIOUS  GREEK  EMPIRES.  143 

conventional  ways  of  describing  the  princes  of  the 
Eastern  Rome,  the  use  of  which  may  sometimes  help 
to  turn  a  sentence.  But  no  prince  reigning  at  Con- 
stantinople ever  called  himself  Emperor  of  the  East, 
and  there  was  another  prince  who  did.  In  those 
days  Empires  arose  and  fell  with  speed  in  the 
Eastern  world.  Even  before  1204,  a  stranger  bom 
on  English  soil,  a  Count  of  Poitou  whom  a  strange 
chance  made  also  King  of  England,  had  the  privilege 
of  overthrowing  an  Emperor  of  the  Romans  whose 
Empire  was  bounded  by  the  isle  of  Cyprus.  Master 
of  that  island,  that  old  battle-field  of  Aryan  and 
Semitic  man,  he  had  the  wisdom  to  get  rid  of  an 
useless  possession,  and  to  bestow  it  as  a  kingdom 
on  a  vassal  of  his  own  who  had  lately  been  King 
of  Jerusalem.  So,  after  the  great  crash  of  the  Latin 
conquest,  momentary  Emperors  had  reigned  in  Epeiros 
and  at  Thessalonikd.  But  there  was  yet  another 
Imperial  claimant  whose  power,  like  that  of  him  of 
Nikaia,  was  more  than  momentary.  It  should  never 
be  forgotten  that  the  last  fragment  of  Creek-speak- 
ing Roman  power  that  the  world  saw  lingered  on, 
not  in  Megarian  Byzantium  but  at  Arkadian  Trebi- 
zond.  As  the  northern  shore  of  the  Euxine  saw 
the  last  Creek  commonwealth,  so  its  southern  shore 
saw  the  last  Creek  Empire.  For  Creek  we  must 
call  it.  The  Komndnos  at  Trebizond,  admitting  the 
superiority  of  the  Palaiologos  at  Constantinople, 
cast  aside  his  Roman  style,  and  called  himself  among 
other  titles  Emperor  of  the  East.  The  West  had 
long  before  heard  of  an  Emperor  of  Britain  and  of 


144  SURVIVALS  OF  EMPIRE. 

an  Emperor  of  the  Spains ;  but  now  for  the  first 
time  in  the  East  a  man  was  found  calling  himself 
^aa-iXevs  and  avTOKparwp,  but  ^acriXev^  and  avTOKpariop 
of  something  else  and  not  'Pw/xcr/wi/.  But  an  Em- 
peror of  the  East,  an  Emperor  of  all  the  East,  Trao-;;? 
T^y  avarokri^^  still  keeps  about  him  something  of  the 
sublimity  of  vagueness ;  his  Imperial  style  has  a 
better  sound  than  the  Imperial  style  of  a  German 
duchy  or  a  negro  island;  an  Emperor  of  the  East 
does  not  seem  to  be  cabined,  cribbed,  confined,  within 
quite  such  a  paltry  space  as  an  Emperor  of  Hayti  or 
an  Emperor  of  Austria.  Still  a  prince  who  called 
himself  Emperor,  but  did  not  dare  to  call  himself 
Emperor  of  the  Komans,  proclaimed  himself  by  his 
very  style  to  be,  to  use  the  most  civil  words,  a 
shadow  and  a  survival.  Indeed  there  is  a  curious 
analogy  between  the  survival  at  Trebizond  and  the 
survival  at  Vienna.  The  Komnenos  and  the  Lothar- 
ingian  each  cast  aside  his  Eoman  style,  to  carry  on 
the  business,  as  our  own  expounder  of  things  Im- 
perial puts  it,  under  another  name. 

But,  if  we  cannot  allow  the  so-called  Empires  of 
Cyprus,  Epeiros,  and  Trebizond,  or  even  the  restored 
Byzantine  Empire  of  the  Palaiologoi,  to  be  more  than 
shadows  and  survivals  of  the  old  Roman  Empire  of 
the  East,  they  did  at  least  continue  it  in  the  sense  in 
which  any  whole  may  be  said  to  be  continued  in  its 
fragments.  We  can  hardly  say  that  that  Empire 
was  in  the  same  sort  continued  either  in  the  Turkish 
Sultanate  oiRoum  or  in  the  Latin  Empire  oi Romania. 
Truly  they  are  shadows  and  survivals   of  the  old 


THE  LATIN  EMPIRE  AT  CONSTANTINOPLE.    145 

Empire ;  but  shadows  and  survivals  of  a  different 
kind  from  those  at  Epeiros  and  Trebizond.  That 
the  Seljuk  lords  of  Nikaia  should  have  been  called 
Sultans  of  Bourn,  that  the  Ottoman  lord  of  Constan- 
tinople and  his  people  should  bear  the  same  Koman 
name  among  the  nations  of  the  further  East,  that, 
before  the  Ottoman  vs^as  lord  of  Constantinople, 
Bajazet  should  have  been  addressed  by  Timour  as  the 
Reiser  of  Bourn,  all  these  things  are  strange  and 
startling  tributes  to  the  abiding  life  of  the  Koman 
name,  but  of  little  more  than  the  name.  The  Latin 
Empire  of  Komania  is  more  remarkable.  Two  or 
three  centuries  earlier,  if  a  band  of  Western  warriors 
had  made  their  way  into  Constantinople,  their  most 
obvious  legal  pretext,  if  they  had  sought  for  a  legal 
pretext,  would  have  been  the  establishment  of  the 
authority  of  the  Emperor  crowned  at  Kome  over  the 
Eastern  as  well  as  the  Western  portion  of  the 
Empire.  To  German  crusaders  such  a  thought  might 
possibly  have  presented  itself  even  in  the  thirteenth 
century;  Constantinople  might  have  been  claimed 
for  the  Holy  Koman  Empire  of  the  German  Nation 
with  more  show  of  reason  than  Prussia  or  Livonia. 
But  the  thought  was  not  likely  to  come  into  the 
minds  of  Frenchmen,  of  Flemings,  of  Venetians  so 
lately  themselves  vassals  of  the  Eastern  Emperor, 
of  Italians  other  than  the  most  zealous  Ghibelins. 
Earlier  crusaders  had  consented  to  become  liegemen 
of  Alexios  Komn^nos,  and  if  some  refused  or  de- 
layed, it  was  certainly  not  out  of  loyalty  to  Henry  of 
Franconia.     The  men  of  Pisa,  firm   stay  of  Caesar 

L 


146  SURVIVALS  OF  EMPIRE. 

in  the  West,  did  Dot  scruple  to  fight  for  his  Eastern 
rival  against  the  Latin  invaders.  That  the  chief 
of  the  conquerors  took  the  title  of  Emperor  was 
in  itself  a  confession  that  Constantinople  was  a 
lawful  seat  of  Empire  ;  but  difficulties  on  either  side 
might  hinder  the  authors  of  the  new  Imperial  style 
from  literally  translating  'Pw/xa/wj/  /Sao-fXeJ?  as  the 
description  of  a  Latin  potentate.  The  style  became 
territorial ;  Baldwin  and  Henry  shrank,  not  un- 
reasonably, from  calling  themselves  Emperors  of  the 
Eoman  people,  but  they  did  not  shrink  from  pro- 
claiming themselves  Emperors  of  a  Koman  land.  A 
strange  position  it  was  that  the  Latin  Emperors  of 
Komania  held  during  the  two  generations  of  their 
rule  in  Constantinople.  Almost  more  strange  is  the 
long  cleaving  of  Western  opinion  to  their  supposed 
rights  after  the  Greek  princes  and  people  again  held 
their  old  home. 

We  may  then,  I  think,  fix,  with  some  confidence, 
the  year  1 204  as  the  time  when  the  true  Roman  Em- 
pire of  the  East  came  to  an  end.  The  various  Greek 
powers  continue  it,  but  they  continue  it  only  as  frag- 
ments ;  none  of  them  can  claim  to  be  the  very  thing 
itself,  however  cut  short.  But  they  are  genuine 
fragments ;  if  not  the  very  thing  itself,  they  are 
pieces  of  it.  In  the  East  'Vooixaloi  had  become  the 
name  of  a  nation,  distinct  and  easily  recognized,  if 
artificial,  and  Trebizond  and  Epeiros,  no  less  than 
Constantinople,  sheltered  fragments  of  that  divided 
nation.  The  Western  Empire  in  its  later,  its  purely 
German,  shape,  does  not  in  the  same  way  continue 


THE  LATER  GERMAN  EMPERORS.  147 

the  national  existence  of  any  people  that  could  be 
called  even  artificial  Eomans.  It  continues  Koman 
titles  and  memories ;  as  so  doing,  it  is  a  true  survival 
of  the  Koman  power,  but  it  has  passed  away  from  all 
Roman  national  life  to  become  no  small  element  in 
the  national  life  of  another  people.  It  became  the 
Holy  Roman  Empire  of  the  German  Nation,  and  the 
German  nation  felt  itself  lifted  up  by  having  the 
Holy  Roman  Empire  in  its  keeping.  After  1250  we 
begin  to  feel  that  there  is  something  incongruous 
even  in  the  Imperial  coronation.  The  personal  dig- 
nity of  Henry  of  Luxemburg  veils  the  fact  that  even 
he  was  not  like  the  Franks  and  the  Swabians ;  Lewis 
of  Bavaria  is  rather  the  great  subject  of  Imperial 
theories  than  a  doer  of  any  Imperial  deeds.  We 
come  to  Charles  the  Fourth  and  Frederick  the  Third  ; 
the  crowning  of  Charles  at  Rome  may  be  bracketted 
with  his  crowning  at  Aries,  and  Frederick  will  call 
forth  a  smile  on  the  most  Ghibelin  of  lips,  as  we  see 
him  in  cope  and  crown,  Augustus  and  Pater  Patriss 
and  something  like  Pordifex  as  well,  in  that  strange 
gathering  of  men  of  all  ages  which  keeps  watch 
over  his  penniless  son  at  Innsbruck.  On  the  other 
hand,  if  the  Eastern  survivals,  unlike  the  Western, 
kept  on  a  national  being  which  might  in  some  sort 
be  called  Roman,  the  Western,  the  German,  shadow 
of  Empire  had  the  advantage  of  unity.  It  was  one 
survival  and  not  many.  There  is  no  formal  break 
between  800  and  1806.  The  difi'erence  is  the  differ- 
ence between  a  thing  which  is  utterly  broken  in 
pieces,  but  of  which  each  fragment  keeps,  so  far  as 

L  2 


1 48  !^UR VIVA LS  OF  EMPIRE. 

a  fragment  can,  the  character  of  the  whole,  and  a 
thing  which  lives  on,  which  never  loses  its  person- 
ality, which  is  never  broken  in  pieces,  but  which  so 
changes  its  character  that  to  speak  of  it  as  the  same 
thing,  though  technically  accurate,  strikes  us  as  no 
longer  expressing  the  real  facts.  In  many  points 
there  is  a  wider  diiference  between  the  Empire  of 
the  first  Caesars  and  the  Empire  of  the  Hohenstaufen 
than  there  is  between  the  Empire  of  the  Hohenstaufen 
and  the  Empire  of  the  Austrians  and  Lorrainers.  But 
the  Hohenstaufen  Emperors  still  felt  as  Emperors  and 
acted  as  Emperors ;  whether  their  objects  were  wise 
or  foolish,  possible  or  impossible,  they  were  still  Im- 
perial objects,  objects  that  reached  far  beyond  the 
bounds  of  Swabia  or  of  Germany.  Among  the  other 
princes  of  the  West  they  held  something  more  than 
a  mere  precedency.  The  kings  of  France,  of  Britain, 
of  Spain,  might  deny  their  supremacy,  but  they 
denied  it  as  a  thing  which  needed  to  be  denied ; 
they  might  refuse  to  acknowledge  the  Emperor  as 
their  lord,  but  they  still  felt  that  the  one  Emperor  was 
a  being  of  another  class  from  the  kings  around  him 
who  might  or  might  not  be  his  men.  Their  whole 
position  was  not  German  but  European ;  if  not  the 
sovereigns,  they  were  at  least  the  chiefs,  of  all 
Western  Christendom.  But  the  Austrian  Emperors 
sank  to  be  Kings  of  Germany  keeping  the  titles  of 
Empire,  and  Kings  of  Germany  who  had  much  less 
authority  in  their  own  kingdom  than  other  kings. 
For  in  truth  the  German  kingdom  had  given  way 
beneath  the  weight  of  the  Roman  Empire.     The  Im- 


THE  AUSTRIAN  EMPERORS.  149 

perial  tradition  had  first  split  the  kingdom  in  pieces, 
and  had  then  kept  the  pieces  from  altogether  falling 
ajjart.  The  Emperor  was  set  too  high  in  formal  dig- 
nity to  exercise  the  ordinary  authority  of  lesser  kings. 
We  cannot  speak  of  the  Austrian  Emperors  as  chiefs 
of  Western  Christendom,  though,  in  a  character  which 
was  not  Imperial,  they  might  sometimes  become  its 
champions.  The  Swabian  Emperors  were,  if  not 
above,  at  least  before,  all  other  princes  ;  the  Austrians 
can  barely  maintain  their  right  to  be  the  first  among 
them.  They  keep  at  most  a  barren  precedency,  and 
even  that  is  not  always  undisputed.  Their  policy  is 
not  European  ;  it  is  hardly  German ;  it  seeks  only 
the  advancement  of  their  own  house  in  Germany  and 
out  of  it.  At  last  they  seem  altogether  to  forget  who 
and  what  they  are.  When  an  Emperor-elect  of  the 
Eomans,  King  of  Germany  and  Jerusalem,  could  cast 
aside  his  Roman  and  German  style,  his  Roman  and 
German  speech,  and  could  describe  himself  as  "  Em- 
pereur  d'Allemagne  et  d' Autriche  "  in  a  treaty  with 
one  who  called  himself  "  Empereur  des  Frangais,"  it 
was  time  that  the  ancient  titles  should  yet  be  used 
in  one  document  more,  in  that  which  should  announce 
to  the  world  that,  as  the  titles  had  now  ceased  to 
have  a  meaning,  the  thing  which  they  described  had 
ceased  to  be. 

Of  the  two  men  who,  under  those  strange  and 
novel  descriptions,  signed  the  Treaty  of  Pressburg,  if 
one  had  forgotten  who  and  what  he  was,  the  other 
knew  perfectly  well  who  and  what  he  was.  The  first 
Buonaparte  did  not,  like  writers  and  orators  now-a- 


150  SURVIVALS  OF  EMPIRE. 

days,  use  the  words  "Emperor"  and  "Empire"  sim- 
ply to  sound  fine.     When  he  called  himself  "  Em- 
peror of  the  French,"  he  knew  perfectly  well  what 
he  meant  by  the  name.     What  he  meant  involved  to 
be  sure  a  few  historical  misrepresentations,  but  they 
were  misrepresentations  which  were  very  convenient 
for  his  purpose.     Once  grant  that  Austrasian  Charles 
and  Corsican  Buonaparte  were  alike  Frenchmen,  and 
the  theory  does  not  hang  badly  together.     The  lord- 
ship of  the  world,  at  the  lowest  the  supremacy  of 
Western    Europe,    was   translated   from   Kome   and 
Germany  to  France.     The  ruler  of  France  held  the 
position  in  the  world  which  the  rulers  of  Kome  and 
Germany  once  had  held.     So  it  was  in  fact ;    the 
style  of  1804  did  but  put  that  fact  into  very  em- 
phatic words.     There  was  again  an  Emperor,  a  ^acri- 
XeJ?  with  prjye^  around  him  ;  only  that  ^aaiXevg  was 
no  longer  Eoman,  Greek,  or  German,  but,  by  conquest 
at  least,  French.     It  might   even  add  a  mahcious 
sweetness  to  the  new  Imperial  position  to  reckon 
Kome   and   Germany   among   the   subject   lands  of 
France.     The  first  French  Empire  was  not  a  mere 
survival  of  the  Koman  Empire  in  any  of  its  stages  ; 
nor  was  it  a  mere  analogy,  as  when  we  apply  the 
Imperial  name  to  barbarian  princes  who  hold  an  Im- 
perial position  in  their  own  world.    The  Empire  of  the 
Moguls  in  many  things  repeated  the  Empire  of  the 
Caesars  ;  but  it  repeated  it  unconsciously.     But  about 
the  French  Empire  everything  was  conscious ;  every 
detail  of  imposture  had  a  meaning.     It  was  not  in 
any  sense  a  survival,  neither  was  it  a  true  revival ; 


THE  FRENCH  EMPIRE.  151 

it  was  in  some  sort  a  mockery,  in  some  sort  an 
imitation,  a  spurious  branch  of  the  same  stock, 
a  parody  of  the  old  Empire  set  up  in  a  kind  of 
strange  rivalry  on  the  ground  of  the  old  Empire. 
But  the  old  Empire  was  not  made  but  grew ;  it  took 
a  long  time  even  to  crumble  in  pieces.  The  new 
Empire,  made  by  one  man,  grew  mightily  for  a  few 
years,  and  then  broke  asunder  in  a  moment.  Still 
the  new  Civilis,  the  man  who  made  the  Empire  of 
the  Gauls,  must  be  allowed  the  doubtful  pre-eminence 
of  being,  if  KaKOirpdyiui.cov,  at  least  fjieyaXoTrpdyinoDv  also. 
Of  the  grotesque  imitation  of  his  work  to  which  some 
bowed  down  not  twenty  years  back,  it  is  needless  to 
speak. 

I  spoke  just  now  of  a  document,  the  treaty  of  Press- 
burg,  which  was  signed  by  two  personages  described 
as  the  "  Emperor  of  the  French  "  and  the  "  Emperor 
of  Germany  and  Austria."  It  must  never  be  for- 
gotten that  the  title  of  "  Emperor  of  Austria  "  dates, 
not  from  1 806  but  from  1 804.  The  King  of  Germany, 
Emperor-elect  of  the  Romans,  while  he  still  held  the 
highest  place  on  earth,  thought  good  to  call  him- 
self "Hereditary  Emperor  of  Austria" — EMaiser  von 
Oesterreich.  What  the  two  titles  meant  side  by  side, 
no  man  can  tell ;  but  when  the  Eoman  and  German 
titles  were  dropped,  the  so-called  "  Empire  of  Austria  " 
went  on  as  a  distinct  survival  of  the  old  Empire,  and 
a  very  memorable  survival  too.  For  it  is  the  most 
successful  imposture  on  record.  This  use  of  an  Im- 
perial style  has  caused  a  power  which  is  in  its  own 
nature   modern,    upstart,  and   revolutionary,  to   be 


152  SURVIVALS  OF  EMPIRE. 

looked  on  as  ancient,  venerable,  and  conservative. 
A  power  of  yesterday,  which  has  lived  only  by 
trampling  on  every  historic  right  and  every  national 
memory,  has  somehow  come  to  be  looked  on  as  the 
very  embodiment  of  dignified  and  consers^ative  anti- 
quity. But  the  particular  way  in  which  the  im- 
posture has  succeeded  is  the  most  wonderful  thing 
of  all.  In  the  last  century  among  ourselves  Smith- 
son  thought  good  to  call  himself  Percy,  and  the 
world  believes  that  he  is  Percy.  But  the  world  be- 
lieves that  Smithson  is  Percy;  it  does  not  believe 
that  the  old  Percies  were  Smithsons.  This  last  is 
what  is  believed  in  the  Austrian  case.  Nobody 
believes  that  the  present  King  of  Hungary  and 
Archduke  of  Austria  is  Emperor  of  the  Eomans  and 
King  of  Germany.  But  many  believe  that  real 
Emperors  of  the  Komans  and  Kings  of  Germany 
were,  what  he  calls  himself.  Emperors  of  Austria. 
I  have  seen  Frederick  Barbarossa  called  "Emperor 
of  Austria ; "  half  the  world  believes  that  the  Prag- 
matic Sanction  of  Charles  the  Sixth  settled  an 
Empire  of  Austria  on  Maria  Theresa ;  I  have  seen  a 
book  of  the  eighteenth  century  in  which  Joseph  the 
Second  was  of  course  spoken  of  simply  as  "the 
Emperor,"  but  in  which  the  editor  in  the  nineteenth 
century  thought  it  needful  to  explain  that  the 
"Emperor"  spoken  of  was  "Emperor  of  Austria." 
I  have  found  natives  of  Switzerland  on  their  ground 
•who  believed  that  the  Imperial  eagle  carved  on  this 
or  that  ancient  building  was  the  badge  of  Austria 
and  not  of  Kome.     Yes  ;  never  was  imposture  more 


THE  AUSTRIAN  AND  GERMAN  EMPIRES.       153 

successful ;  never  was  the  truth  of  histoiy  more 
thoroughly  turned  round.  It  would  be  somewhat 
hard  to  bear  if  Francis  of  Lorraine  were  thought  to 
be  something  like  Frederick  of  Hohenstaufen ;  but 
the  dead  may  turn  in  their  graves  when  Frederick 
of  Hohenstaufen  is  thought  to  be  something  like 
Francis  of  Lorraine. 

The  truth  is  that  the  strange  neglect  into  which 
the  Imperial  history  has  fallen,  the  general  incapacity 
or  unwillingness  to  grasp  the  leading  fact  in  the 
whole  history  of  Europe,  is  largely  owing  to  the 
existence  and  the  success  of  the  great  Austrian  im- 
posture. But  there  are  two  other  European  powers 
which  also  take  to  themselves  the  Imperial  style,  and 
each  of  which  is  in  a  certain  sense  a  revival  of  the 
old  Empire.  Neither  the  Kussian  nor  the  German 
Empire  can  be  allowed  to  be  more  than  a  survival  of 
the  true  Empire ;  but  neither  of  them  is  a  sheer 
imposture  like  the  so-called  Empire  of  Austria.  The 
German  Empire  called  yesterday  into  being  is  a  real 
new  birth  of  the  old  German  kingdom.  Its  head,  with 
no  claim  to  represent  the  Imperial  position  of  Charles 
and  Otto,  is  a  real  representative  of  Henry  of  Saxony 
and  Eudolf  of  Habsburg.  But  so  many  Kings  of  Ger- 
many had  been  Emperors  that  it  might  have  seemed 
strange  to  make  a  King  of  Germany  and  not  to  call 
him  Emperor.  And  it  would  have  been  hard  to  find 
any  lower  title  for  the  head  of  a  Confederation  which 
numbers  other  kings  among  its  members.  Such  an 
one  in  truth  has  in  some  sort  an  Imperial  position ; 
he  too,  like  Agamemnon  or  ^thelstan,  is  a  (3a<ri\eui 


154  SURVIVALS  OF  EMPIRE. 

with  his  pn'ye9  round  him.  The  elder  Empire  of  Kussia 
stands  on  quite  another  ground.  So  far  as  it  is  an  Im- 
perial survival,  it  is  a  survival  of  the  Empire  of  the 
East.  The  Tzar  of  Moscow  belongs  to  the  same  class 
as  the  Tzars  of  Bulgaria  and  Servia.  We  have  seen 
how  the  Slavonic  powers  which,  while  assaulting  the 
Empire,  bowed  down  before  the  greatness  of  the  Em- 
pire, took  to  themselves  its  Imperial  titles,  and  bore 
outside  the  Tzarigrad  the  lofty  style  which  they 
would  have  been  better  pleased  to  bear  within  its 
walls.  And  since  the  faU  of  Constantinople,  the 
Kussian  princes,  to  say  nothing  of  some  supposed 
kindred  with  the  last  Imperial  house,  have,  as  the 
most  powerful  princes  of  the  Eastern  Church,  stepped 
into  something  like  the  general  position  in  the  world 
which  had  belonged  to  the  Eastern  Emperors.  With 
less  of  geographical  connexion,  they  certainly  repre- 
sent the  Eastern  Empire  with  far  more  of  truth  than 
any  modem  Western  power  can  claim  to  represent 
the  Western  Empire.  Only  the  title  of  "  Emperor 
of  all  the  Kussias  "  can  hardly  be  accepted  as  a  truth, 
as  long  as  two  Russian  lands,  the  lands  of  Halicz  and 
Vladimir,  are  tied  on  to  the  Austrian  duchy  on  the 
strength  of  having  been  in  far  distant  ages  conquered 
by  a  Hungarian  king. 

In  all  these  powers  then  which  bear  or  have  borne 
the  Imperial  style,  Russia,  Germany,  Austria,  France 
under  the  first  Buonaparte,  we  can  see  a  distinct 
connexion  with  the  Roman  power.  The  thought 
of  the  Roman  power  in  some  of  its  forms  and  stages 
was  present  to  the  minds  of  those   by  whom  the 


THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE.  155 

Imperial  style  was  taken.  But  the  application  of 
that  style  to  so  many  powers  has  gone  far  to  take 
from  it  any  distinct  meaning.  I  will  not  say  that 
the  words  "Empire"  and  "Imperial"  were  always 
in  my  younger  days  used  with  a  conscious  reference 
to  Rome  and  her  memories;  but  I  will  say  that  they 
were  not  used  quite  as  they  are  now,  simply  to  sound 
fine.  A  poet  or  an  orator  might  use  them  in  some 
impassioned  strain  ;  men  did  not  in  every  day  speech 
talk  about  "  the  Empire  "  as  familiarly  as  they  talk 
about  "  the  parish."  A  little  time  back,  in  opposition 
to  this  new  insular  whim,  "  Empire "  alwa^^s  meant 
something  specially  French.  Even  the  cant  phrase 
of  "the  Second  Empire"  to  mean  the  dominion  of 
the  last  Buonaparte  has,  I  suspect,  done  something 
to  overshadow  the  great  truths  of  history;  we  all 
know  that  a  man  who  has  written  many  volumes 
on  a  great  historical  subject  took  for  granted  that 
a  "Prince  of  the  Empire,"  above  all  a  Prince  of 
Orange,  must  mean  something  in  France.  To  those 
whose  studies  lead  them  to  look  on  Imperator  and 
^acriXevs  as  words  which  translate  each  other,  it  does 
seem  a  pity  if  the  style  of  Emperor  should  come 
simply  to  be  the  English  equivalent  for  Tvpawoi. 

But  leaving  smaller  questions  like  these  aside, 
there  is  indeed  one  survival  of  the  ancient  Empire 
before  whose  mighty  history  all  minds  must  bend 
in  awe,  a  survival  well  nigh  greater  and  more 
memorable  than  that  of  which  it  is  the  survival. 
When  Gratian,  the  Christian  Imperator,  laid  aside 


156  SURVIVALS  OF  EMPIRE. 

the  badges  of  the  pagan  Pontifex  Maximiis,  truly 
he  did  not  foresee  the  day  when  a  Christian  Pontifex 
Maximus  should  claim  to  place  the  crown  of  the 
Imperator  on  his  brow,  and  should  even  claim  the 
right  to  take  away  what  he  might  in  some  sort 
seem  to  have  given.  Christian  Caesars  might  indeed 
repeat  what  a  pagan  Caesar  had  said  in  unconscious 
prophecy,  that  he  could  better  bear  the  proclamation 
of  a  rival  Emperor  than  the  election  of  a  Christian 
Bishop  in  the  Imperial  city.  A  day  was  to  come 
when,  if  men  deemed  that  two  great  lights  were 
set  in  the  Christian  firmament,  yet  it  was  Caesar's 
moon  that  shone  with  a  feebler  and  reflected  light, 
a  light  that  might  suffice  to  rule  the  night  of  earthly 
things,  while  the  sun  of  the  Pontiff  shone  with  a 
light  that  came  straight  from  the  Creator's  hand, 
a  greater  light  to  rule  the  day  of  man's  spiritual 
being.  It  might  still  be  held  that  God  had  two 
earthly  Vicars,  that  two  swords  were  placed  by  His 
grant,  each  in  the  hand  chosen  to  wield  it ;  but  the 
sword  that  was  wielded  by  the  successor  of  Au- 
gustus was  held  to  be  of  baser  metal  and  duller 
edge  than  the  sword  that  was  wielded  by  the  suc- 
cessor of  Peter.  Great  and  mighty  were  those 
claims,  and  great  and  mighty  were  once  the  men 
who  put  them  forth.  Even  Ghibelins  in  heart, 
historic  liegemen  of  Caesar,  must  stand  by  and 
wonder,  if  they  cannot  approve,  when  Caesar  stands 
uncrowned,  unclad,  unheeded,  at  the  Pontiff's  gate, 
cast  down  from  the  throne  of  the  world  by  a  word 
sent  forth  from  Rome  in  Rome's  new  character.     At 


THE  POPES.  157 

one  moment  the  lord  of  fifty  legions  is  left,  at  the 
bidding  of  an  unarmed  man,  without  a  single  sword 
ready  to  leave  its  scabbard  at  his  call.  At  another 
moment  he  whose  word  has  wrought  such  wonders, 
himself  in  turn  driven  from  his  chiurch  and  throne, 
leaves  the  world  with  the  protest  that  it  is  because 
he  has  loved  righteousness  and  hated  iniquity  that 
he  dies  in  exile,  and  is  comforted  in  his  dying  hour 
by  the  answer  that  in  exile  he  cannot  die,  seeing 
God  hath  given  him  the  nations  for  his  inheritance 
and  the  utmost  parts  of  the  earth  for  his  possession. 
Rome  again  rules  the  world,  and  again  rules  it  by 
a  moral  power ;  she  rules  the  world  so  surely  that 
she  can  again  as  it  were  turn  her  back  upon  herself; 
the  voice  of  her  Pontiff  can  speak  from  Avignon  as 
the  voice  of  her  Augustus  had  once  spoken  from 
Ravenna.  But  we  must  bear  in  mind  that  it  was 
simply  because  her  Emperors  had  come  to  speak 
from  Ravenna  and  from  a  crowd  of  other  spots 
other  than  Rome,  that  a  voice  that  would  have 
seemed  as  strange  to  Constantino  as  to  Trajan  had 
learned  to  come  forth,  it  might  be  from  Rome,  it 
might  be  from  Clermont  or  from  Lyons.  Let  us 
look  at  the  case  with  the  calm  gaze  of  history. 
History  knows  nothing  of  theories  in  which  the 
Roman  Bishop  appears  as  the  centre  of  spiritual 
unity,  the  divinely  commissioned  head  of  the  Uni- 
versal Church.  History  knows  just  as  little  of 
theories  in  which  the  Roman  Bishop  appears  as 
Antichrist  and  the  Man  of  Sin.  It  may  indeed  be 
the  business  of  history  to  trace  the  steps  by  which 


158  SURVIVALS  OF  EMPIRE. 

either  theory  arose  in  men's  minds ;  but  it  is  not 
by  the  light  of  such  theories  as  these  that  she  will 
look  at  the  facts  of  her  own  science.  In  the 
eyes  of  history  the  power  of  the  Eoman  Church 
grew  up  simply  because  it  was  the  Koman  Church  and 
the  Church  of  no  meaner  city.  The  church  founded 
in  the  mother  and  head  of  all  cities  could  not  fail 
to  rank  as  the  mother  and  head  of  all  churches. 
Eome,  the  local  Eome,  still  had  life  in  her  to  rule, 
and  if  her  Emperor  forsook  his  calling  in  the  local 
seat  of  rule,  her  Bishop  was  there  to  take  his  place. 
When  the  sword  of  Valentinian  was  powerless  against 
the  Hun,  the  voice  of  Leo  was  ready  to  charm  with 
all  its  wisdom.  Claudius  and  Vespasian  had  brought 
the  elder  folk  of  Britain  beneath  the  earthly  yoke 
of  Eome ;  when  their  work  of  a  moment  had  passed 
away,  it  was  for  Gregory  to  bring  another  folk  of 
Britain  as  more  abiding  dwellers  within  her  ghostly 
fold.  Csesar  after  Caesar  had  given  and  taken  away 
the  crowns  of  vassal  kings  ;  when  Caesar's  name  had 
become  but  a  shadow  in  Western  lands,  it  was  for 
the  Eoman  Pontiff  to  bid  shear  the  locks  of  the  last 
degenerate  Merwing,  to  pour  for  the  first  time  the 
kingly  unction  on  a  Prankish  head.  In  all  these 
cases,  in  a  hundred  others,  Eome  stUl  speaks  as  the 
head  and  teacher  of  the  nations ;  she  is  driven  to 
speak  through  the  voice  of  her  Bishop  simply  be- 
cause her  Emperor  has  forsaken  her.  How  truly, 
how  wholly,  it  was  the  constant  absence,  the  fre- 
quent weakness,  of  the  Emperor  out  of  whicli  the 
power  of  the  Pontifif  grew  will  be  seen  by  comparing 


NO  PAPACY  POSSIBLE  IN  THE  EAST.  159 

the  story  of  the  Old  Kome  with  the  story  of  the 
New.  At  Constantinople  the  Emperor  was  ever 
present,  ever  reigning ;  where  he  dwelled  and  reigned 
there  was  no  room  for  any  other  power  to  take 
to  itself  the  slightest  fragment  of  Imperial  rule. 
Never  was  any  line  of  princes  more  deeply  im- 
pressed with  a  religious  character  than  the  Eastern 
Caesars;  none  more  constantly  made  the  Faith,  the 
advancement  of  the  Faith,  the  humiliation  of  its 
enemies,  the  abiding  objects  of  their  poHcy;  their 
style  was  the  "  Faithful  Emperor ;  "  their  cry  of 
battle  was  "  Victory  to  the  Cross."  Nowhere  were 
Church  and  State  more  truly  one ;  but  nowhere 
was  the  temporal  ruler  more  distinctly  in  all  causes 
and  over  all  persons  within  his  dominions  supreme. 
In  the  West  the  present  Patriarch  had  well  nigh 
taken  the  place  of  the  absent  Emperor ;  in  the  East 
the  present  Emperor  had  well  nigh  taken  on  himself 
the  functions  of  a  Patriarch  who  in  his  presence 
was  but  his  creature.  Like  his  pagan  predecessors, 
it  was  he,  and  not  the  priest  whom  he  appointed 
and  deposed,  who  was  truly  Pontifex  Maximus  as 
well  as  Pater  Pairiss.  A  Dante  of  the  tenth  or 
eleventh  century  might  have  found  the  highest 
Ghibelin  ideal,  the  Augustus  crowned  by  God,  ruling 
in  God's  name  as  God's  Vicar  but  knowing  no  father 
or  lord  on  earth,  in  the  mighty  Emperors  of  that 
day,  in  the  men  who  turned  from  the  toils  of  the 
camp  and  the  splendours  of  the  court  to  tame  their 
own  bodies  with  the  hardness  of  a  hermit  in  his 
cave,  in  Nik^phoros  seeking  rest  on  his  bearskin  on 


160  SURVIVALS  OF  EMPIRE. 

the  earth  for  the  stalwart  limbs  that  had  smitten 
down  the  Saracen,  in  Basil  with  his  girdle  of  iron 
on  his  loins,  marching  forth  to  trample  under  foot 
all  that  stood  forth  as  either  the  foe  of  Christ  or 
the  foe  of  Eome. 

Mighty  and  wonderful  indeed  are  those  the  most 
brilliant  days  in  the  long  annals  of  the  Eastern 
Empire.  Crete,  Cyprus,  Kilikia,  won  back  from 
the  misbelievers — the  Roman  eagle  again  spreading 
her  wings  over  the  Euphrates  and  the  Tigris — the 
cross  again  planted  in  what  might  seem  to  be  its 
special  home  at  Antioch  and  Edessa — all  show  the 
part  which  the  Eastern  Eome  in  her  proudest  days 
could  play  in  that  Eternal  Question  which  is  in  truth 
the  \QTj  substance  of  her  whole  history.  Seated  at 
the  junction  of  two  worlds,  called  into  being  by  her 
founder  as  the  special  guardian  of  Europe  and  of 
those  lands  of  Asia  which  Europe  had  made  her  own, 
as  soon  as  the  strife  of  West  and  East  had  changed 
into  a  strife  of  Christendom  and  Islam,  the  Eastern 
Eome  was  bound  to  be  the  foremost  in  the  strife,  or 
she  was  untrue  to  the  cause  of  her  own  being.  The 
Eoman  of  the  East,  like  the  Spaniard  of  the  West, 
was  of  necessity  a  crusader  before  crusades  were 
preached ;  with  both  of  them  rehgion  and  patriotism 
were  in  truth  the  same;  men  could  not  deal  a  blow 
on  behalf  of  their  country  which  was  not  also  a  blow 
dealt  on  behalf  of  their  faith.  We  have  already 
glanced  at  this  greatest  of  all  the  many  instances  of 
Byzantine  power  of  revival,  the  great  days  of  the 


EASTERN  WARS  OF  THE  TWO  EMPIRES.       161 

Macedonian  Emperors.  I  call  back  your  thoughts  to 
them  again  in  order  to  carry  out  more  fully  the  con- 
trast between  the  East  fighting  for  its  very  being 
against  the  unbelieving  foe,  fighting  under  the  leader- 
ship of  its  still  present  Imperial  head,  and  the  West 
where  the  Imperial  head  fell  away  from  the  common 
work  of  all,  and  left  the  leadership  of  the  Empire  and 
of  the  kingdoms  of  the  West  to  the  spiritual  power 
which  stood  ready  to  do  the  highest  of  his  duties  for 
him.  When  the  West  first  marched  for  the  deliver- 
ance of  the  East,  it  was  not  at  the  bidding  of  the 
Caesar,  but  at  the  bidding  of  the  Pontiff.  In  earlier 
days,  when  the  danger  was  at  their  own  gates,  when 
new  At  til  as  came,  year  after  year,  on  the  old  errand 
of  havoc,  Germany  was  indeed  ready  with  men  to  do 
once  more  the  work  of  Aetius  and  the  first  Theodoric. 
The  Saxon  kings,  father  and  son,  knew  how  to  smite 
the  Magyar  with  blows  more  crushing  than  the  Hun 
had  tholed  on  the  Catalaunian  fields.  So,  ages  after, 
men  were  not  lacking  to  smite  the  Mongol  at  Lignitz 
as  the  Hun  and  the  Magyar  had  been  smitten  before 
him.  But  in  these  wars  men  were  fighting  for  their 
homes  and  for  their  lives,  for  their  faith  only  as  part 
of  their  homes  and  of  their  lives.  When  the  great 
cry  of  aU  came  up,  when  to  fight  for  the  faith  was  not 
to  fight  for  men's  own  homes  and  lives  but  for  the 
homes  and  lives  of  others,  then  the  voice  that  spoke 
was  the  voice,  not  of  Eome's  Emperor  but  of  her 
Bishop.  Some  months  back  I  strove  to  draw  for  you 
a  picture  of  the  great  day  on  which  that  voice  was 
raised,  as  part  of  the  tale  of  the  memorable  land  and 

M 


162  SURVIVALS  OF  EMPIRE. 

city  that  listened  to  it.  By  the  Bright  Mount  of  the 
Arvernian  land,  in  the  home  of  Sidonius  and  Gregory, 
the  word  was  spoken,  at  whose  bidding  men  of  every 
calling  short  of  kingship  marched  forth  to  do  battle 
for  the  sepulchre  of  Christ.  The  man  to  speak  the 
word  should  have  been  God's  Vicar  in  earthly  things; 
he  who  bade  men  draw  the  sword  should  have  been 
he  who  could  bid  them  follow  him  as  their  loftiest 
leader ;  the  call  to  the  Holy  War  should  have  been 
in  the  West,  as  in  the  East  it  ever  was,  a  decree  that 
went  forth  from  Caesar  Augustus.  But  the  two 
swords  had  clashed  in  anger,  the  two  lights  shone 
with  hostile  brilliancy;  the  days  were  passed  when 
the  third  Otto  and  the  fifth  Gregory  might  have  stood 
side  by  side  at  such  a  gathering ;  he  who  now  drew 
the  sword  at  the  bidding  of  Kome's  Emperor  could 
do  it  only  at  the  risk  of  the  ban  of  Eome's  oft- 
times  banished  Bishop.  Alexios  Komndnos,  vigorous 
founder  of  a  vigorous  dynasty,  was  still  not  a  Hera- 
cHus  or  a  Basil ;  but  in  the  East  the  Emperor  was 
still  ready  in  his  own  place  to  do  his  own  work ;  he 
had  not  vanished  into  some  land  beyond  Mount 
Hasmus,  and  left  a  Patriarch  who  acknowledged  him 
not  to  do  the  foremost  duty  of  Empire  in  his 
stead. 

In  later  stages  of  the  crusading  strife  Kings  and 
Emperors  of  the  Eomans  did  indeed  take  their  share; 
and  the  greatest  success  won  by  any  crusaders  since 
the  first  fell  to  the  lot  of  the  Emperor  who  more  than 
any  other  drew  down  on  his  head  the  curses  of  the 
spiritual  Kome.     Conrad  went  and  came  back;  the 


THE  CRUSADES.  163 

elder  Frederick  died  on  his  march ;  but  the  second 
Frederick,  alone  of  Emperors,  alone  of  European 
kings,  made  his  way  within  the  long-fought-for  walls, 
and  wore  a  royal  crown  in  the  city  of  Godfrey  and  of 
David.  Cursed  first  for  not  going  on  the  crusade, 
then  cursed  again  for  going,  cursed  most  of  all  for 
actually  winning  the  prize  of  so  many  struggles,  the 
King  of  Salem  had  to  fall  back  on  traditions  older 
than  Godfrey,  older  than  David ;  he  had  to  fall  back 
on  the  kingdom  of  Melchizedek,  to  place  on  his  own 
head  the  crown  which  no  priestly  hand  would  set 
there.  That  the  Bishop  of  the  Western  Eome  should 
strive  to  hinder  the  Emperor  of  the  Western  Eome 
from  winning  the  noblest  prize  that  any  Emperor 
since  Heraclius  had  won,  shows  more  than  any 
other  tale  in  history  what  a  power  had  sprung  up 
in  the  bosom  of  the  Empire  to  supplant  the  Empire 
itself.  A  King  of  France,  a  King's  son  of  England, 
might  go  on  the  now  hopeless  errand ;  no  Emperor, 
no  German  king,  was  likely  to  go  and  seek  the  mis- 
believers in  the  Eastern  lands  with  the  memory  of 
Frederick  before  his  eyes.  A  day  was  to  come  when 
the  misbelievers  were  to  come  and  threaten  Emperors 
and  German  kings  in  their  own  realm.  But  before 
that  day  came,  one  Emperor,  fighting  for  the  last 
fragment  of  Rome's  Eastern  power,  was  to  win  by 
his  fall  such  glory  as  no  Emperor  had  for  ages 
won  by  his  triumphs.  And,  even  in  the  moment 
of  that  glorious  fall,  he  was  doomed  to  show  that  the 
Bishops  of  the  Western  Rome  could  be  as  deadly 
in  their  friendship  to  the  Caesars  of  the  East  as  they 

M  2 


164  SURVIVALS  OF  EMPIRE. 

could  be  in  their  enmity  to  their  own  sovereigns, 
whether  on  the  throne  of  Charles  or  on  the  throne 
of  David. 

I  have  already  spoken  of  the  event  of  the  year 
1 204,  the  taking  of  Constantinople  by  the  Latins,  as 
the  point  at  which  we  must  place  the  end  of  the  old 
and  unbroken  Empire  of  Kome  in  the  East.  High 
indeed  among  the  crimes  and  folhes  of  recorded 
history  must  we  rank  that  exploit  of  princely  free- 
booters in  crusading  garb  which  broke  in  pieces  the 
ancient  bulwark  of  Christendom,  and  left  only  feeble 
fragments  which  could  not  fail  to  be  swallowed  up 
one  by  one  by  the  advancing  Infidel.  Men  with  the 
cross  on  their  shoulders,  with  their  swords  hallowed 
to  the  service  of  the  faith,  turned  aside  from  their 
calling  to  carve  out  realms  for  themselves  at  the  cost 
of  their  fellow-Christians,  and  thereby  to  do  the  work 
of  the  misbeliever  more  thoroughly  than  he  could 
ever  have  done  it  for  himself.  At  the  beginning  of 
the  thirteenth  century  the  paths  of  the  Eastern  and 
Western  Emperors  had  parted  so  far  asunder  that 
the  rival  claims  of  the  Greek  and  the  German  repre- 
sentatives of  Rome  might  well  have  died  out  in 
oblivion.  But  the  Western  Bome  had  now  another 
representative  whose  claims  could  not  die  out.  If  her 
Emperor  no  longer  cared  to  assert  his  right  to  the 
dominion  of  the  world,  her  Bishop  was  ever  ready  to 
make  the  claim.  The  men  of  the  West  were  taught 
to  look  on  the  Christian  East  as  a  schismatic  land  to 
be  won  back  to  the  true  obedience ;  they  were  taught 


THE  FOURTH  CRUSADE.  165 

that  it  was  a  worthy  work  to  drive  the  pastors  of 
the  Eastern  Churches  from  their  thrones  and  to  instal 
in  their  place  dependents  of  the  encroaching  Bishop 
of  the  West.  Vassals  of  Eome  in  her  new  character, 
a  spiritual  Prusias,  a  spiritual  Herod,  were  to  teach 
once  more  the  lesson  of  bondage  to  Greece  and  Asia, 
to  bid  all  lands  look  once  more  to  the  elder  Rome  as 
the  judge  that  alone  gave  forth  judgements  which  none 
might  gainsay.  It  is  indeed  due  to  the  memory  of 
the  great  Innocent  to  remember  that  it  was  not  at 
his  bidding,  but  in  direct  disobedience  to  his  straitest 
command,  that  Frank  and  Venetian  turned  their 
swords  against  Constantinople  instead  of  wielding 
them  for  Jerusalem.  It  was  not  at  his  word  or  with 
his  approval  that  men  whose  calling  it  was  to 
rescue  the  Temple  of  the  Lord  from  misbelieving 
masters,  defiled  the  church  of  the  Divine  Wisdom  as 
no  unbelieving  master  has  ever  defiled  it.  But  Inno- 
cent did  not  scruple  to  take  advantage  of  the  crimes 
which  he  had  forbidden,  and  to  enlarge  his  spiritual 
dominion  by  the  help  of  the  plunderers  whom  he  had 
failed  to  call  off  from  their  work  of  plunder.  And  so 
the  disunited  East,  a  Christendom  in  which  Christians 
had  ceased  to  be  brethren,  stood  a  ready  prey  for  the 
Infidel,  strong  in  his  unity,  strong  in  the  guidance  of 
the  mightiest  line  of  princes  to  whom  the  champion- 
ship of  the  Asiatic,  now  the  Mussulman,  side  of  the 
Eternal  Question  had  ever  fallen. 

For  we  have  reached  the  days  of  the  Ottoman. 
Europe  and  Christendom  had  now  to  strive  with  a  foe 
more  terrible  than  Carthage  or  than  Persia,  more 


166  SURVIVALS  OF  EMPIRE. 

terrible  than  the  Saracen  of  the  East  or  of  the  West, 
more  terrible  than  the  Hun,  the  Avar,  the  Magyar,  or 
the  earlier  tribes  of  his  own  Turkish  stock.  The 
Arab  had  cut  the  Empire  short ;  but  in  cutting  the 
Empire  short,  he  had  relieved  it  of  provinces  which 
were  no  source  of  true  strength,  and  thereby  he  had 
given  it  for  the  first  time  somewhat  of  the  life  and 
vigour  of  a  nation.  The  Seljuk  Turk  had  conquered 
the  lands  which  the  Arab  had  ravaged  but  could 
never  conquer  ;  but  he  had  conquered  them  only  by 
making  them  a  wilderness.  He  had  fixed  his  throne 
at  Nikaia,  but  he  had  fixed  it  there  only  to  fall  back 
again.  If  the  Sultan  of  Eome  ever  dreamed  that  the 
Eastern  Eome  itself  was  to  be  his,  his  dream  was  of 
the  kind  which  comes  from  the  gate  of  ivory.  But 
the  vision  of  Othman  was  the  vision  of  a  seer  to  whom 
the  future  was  laid  open.  He  and  his  house  were 
not  to  be  beaten  back  till  they  had  reared  a  dominion 
on  Christian,  on  European,  soil,  which  far  more  than 
outweighed  the  winning  back  of  the  most  western 
land  of  Europe  from  Eastern  masters.  The  Ottoman 
was  to  become,  what  no  other  of  the  manv  earlier 
invaders  of  his  stock  had  ever  become,  not  the  mere 
passing  scourge,  but  the  indwelling  and  abiding  op- 
pressor of  Christian  and  European  lands.  The  Hun 
and  the  Avar  had  been  driven  back  or  swept  away 
from  the  earth.  The  Bulgarian  had  bowed  himself 
to  Christian  teaching  ;  he  had  cast  aside  his  barbarian 
speech,  and  had  merged  his  national  being  in  the 
national  being  of  an  European  people.  The  Magyar 
had  kept  his  name  and  his  tongue  ;  but  he  had  made 


THE  OTTOMANS.  16/ 

his  way  into  the  fellowship  of  Christendom  and  of 
Europe ;  only,  to  the  abiding  loss  of  the  nations  of 
South-Eastern  Europe,  his  Christian  teaching  had  come 
from  the  Western  Eome.  The  Mongol  had  fixed  him- 
self on  a  far  off  march  of  Europe  and  Asia,  to  hold 
from  thence  an  overlordship  over  the  most  distant 
and  least  known  of  European  powers.  The  Ottoman 
was  to  do  more  than  these.  He  was  to  do  what  the 
Arab  and  the  Seljuk  had  striven  in  vain  to  do  ;  he 
was  to  fix  his  seat  in  the  New  Kome  itself.  And 
more,  he  was  to  win  the  New  Kome  in  the  character 
of  an  European  power,  and  to  storm  its  walls  by 
the  hands  of  soldiers  of  European  birth.  When  Ma- 
homet pitched  his  camp  before  Constantinople,  it  was 
not,  like  the  Saracen  who  came  before  him,  in  the 
character  of  a  lord  of  Asia  invading  Europe;  he  came 
as  one  whose  vast  dominion  on  European  soil  had 
long  hemmed  in  the  Roman  world  in  that  corner  of 
Thrace  which  he  had  kept  as  well  nigh  the  last 
morsel  to  devour.  The  conqueror  of  Constantinople 
came  as  one  who  already  ruled  on  the  Danube,  but 
who  did  not  as  yet  rule  on  the  Nile  or  the  Euphrates. 
And  he  came  as  one  who  knew  how  to  press  into  his 
service  the  choicest  wits  and  the  strongest  arms  of  all 
the  lands  from  the  Danube  to  the  Propontis  as 
well  as  of  the  lands  from  the  Propontis  to  the  Halys. 
The  institution  of  the  Janissaries,  that  cruellest 
ofishoot  of  the  wisdom  of  the  serpent,  had  turned 
the  strength  of  every  conquered  people  against  itself, 
and  had  changed  those  who  should  have  been  the 
deliverers  from  oppression  into  the  most  trustworthy 


168  SURVIVALS  OF  EMPIRE. 

instruments  of  the  oppressor.  The  ramparts  of  Con- 
stantinople were  stormed  by  warriors  of  Greek,  of 
Slavonic,  and  of  Albanian  blood ;  the  dominions  of 
the  masters  of  Constantinople  were  administered  by 
statesmen  of  European  stock,  once  of  Christian  faith; 
whether  the  human  prey  kidnapped  in  childhood  or 
the  baser  brood  who,  then  as  now,  sold  their  souls  for 
barbarian  hire.  In  all  the  endless  phases  of  the 
Eternal  Question,  never  had  the  powers  of  evil  yet 
devised  such  a  weapon  as  this,  the  holding  down  of 
nations  in  bondage  by  the  hands  of  the  choicest  of 
their  own  flesh  and  blood. 

I  would  fain  ask  how  many  there  are  among  those 
around  me  who  bear  in  memory  that  this  day  on 
which  we  have  come  together  ^  is  the  anniversary  of 
the  darkest  day  in  the  history  of  Christendom.  The 
twenty-ninth  of  May,  the  day  so  long  and  so  strangely 
honoured  among  us  as  the  day  of  the  birth  and  return 
of  Charles  the  Second,  bears  about  it  in  other  lands 
the  memory  of  events  of  greater  moment  in  the 
history  of  the  world.  It  is  the  day  of  the  fall  of  the 
Eastern  Eome,  the  martyr's  birthday  of  her  last  Em- 
peror. It  was  on  this  day  that  the  barbarian  first  seated 
himself  on  the  throne  of  the  Caesars,  that  the  infidel 
first  planted  the  badge  of  Antichrist  on  the  most  glo- 
rious of  Christian  temples.  From  this  day  onwards 
the  Christian  East  has  been  in  mourning,  mourning 
for  the  home  of  its  Empire,  for  the  holy  place  of  its 
faith.  On  such  a  day  as  this  there  should  go  up  no 
anthem  of  rejoicing,  but  the  sad  strain  of  the  Hebrew 
^  May  29,  1885. 


MAY  29,  1453.  169 

gleeman  who  had  seen  a  day  of  no  less  blackness;  "  0 
God,  the  heathen  have  come  into  thine  inheritance ; 
thy  holy  temple  have  they  defiled,  and  made  Jeru- 
salem an  heap  of  stones."  But  for  the  Hebrew 
seventy  years  only  of  sorrow  were  appointed ;  onr 
captivity — for  the  captivity  of  the  Eastern  Rome  is 
the  captivity  of  all  Christendom — has  gone  on  now 
for  four  hundred  and  two  and  forty  years  as  it  is  this 
day.  Now,  as  then,  barbarians  sit  encamped  as  a 
wasting  horde  in  the  fairest  regions  of  the  earth  ; 
now,  as  then,  the  profession  of  the  Christian  faith 
entails  an  abiding  martyrdom  on  nations  in  their  own 
land.  And  heavier  still  is  the  thought  that  not  a 
few  in  Christian  lands  love  to  have  it  so.  We  daily 
hear  the  strange  lesson  that  "  British  interests," 
"imperial  interests" — the  interest  perhaps  of  the 
usurer  wrung  from  the  life-blood  of  his  victim — de- 
mand that  we  should  do  all  that  we  can  to  prolong 
the  rule  of  the  oppressor,  to  prolong  the  bondage  of 
the  oppressed.  We  have  seen  the  strange  sight  of 
English  statesmen  rejoicing,  as  at  some  worthy  ex- 
ploit of  their  hands,  that  they  had  given  back  to  the 
rule  of  the  Sultan,  that  is  to  the  bondage  of  the  un- 
believing stranger  in  their  own  land,  the  men,  the 
women,  the  children,  for  whom  the  swords  of  better 
men  than  they  had  wrought  deliverance.  With 
shame  like  this  done  in  our  own  day,  we  can  hardly 
turn  round  and  throw  stones  even  at  the  men  of  the 
Fourth  Crusade.  They  at  least  sinned  for  the  human 
motive  of  their  own  pelf;  it  is  something  for  which 
no  human  motive  can  be  found  when  men  rejoice  in 


170  SURVIVALS  OF  EMPIRE. 

the  sorrows  of  the  helpless  lands  which,  after  a 
glimpse  of  the  light  of  freedom,  were  again  thrust 
down  into  the  night  of  bondage  which  that  short 
glimpse  of  light  has  made  more  black. 

Let  us  remember  then,  as  our  story  brings  the  tale 
of  the  Eastern  Rome  to  its  end,  that  it  was  as  it  were  in 
the  night  that  has  just  passed  that  the  last  Christian 
worship  was  paid  beneath  the  dome  of  Saint  Sophia, 
that  it  was  as  it  were  by  the  morning  light  of  this 
very  day  that  the  last  Constantino  took  his  post  by 
the  gate  of  Saint  R6manos,  to  die,  when  to  die  was 
all  that  he  could  do,  for  his  Empire  and  for  his  faith. 
And  yet  there  is  one  thought  which  casts  a  shadow 
over  the  end  of  the  hero  and  of  his  powder.  The  last 
Christian  worship  beneath  the  dome  of  Saint  Sophia 
was  a  worship  paid  according  to  foreign  rites,  a  wor- 
ship from  which  the  men  of  the  Christian  East  shrank 
as  from  a  defilement.  So  far  had  the  ghostly  power 
of  the  Western  Rome  spread  its  shadow  over  all  lands, 
that  the  temporal  help  of  the  West  could  be  won 
only,  or  rather  could  be  promised  only  and  never 
won,  by  treason  to  the  old  religious  traditions  of  the 
East.  It  was  a  brighter  moment  in  the  memory  of 
our  fathers,  a  moment  which  has  no  fellow  in  our 
own  memory,  when  three  of  the  great  powers  of 
East  and  West,  representing  three  of  the  great 
races  of  Europe,  three  of  the  great  divisions  of 
Christendom,  Orthodox  Russia,  Catholic  France, 
Protestant  England,  fought  side  by  side  to  break 
the  power  of  the  barbarian  on  the  great  day  of 
Navarino. 


SEPTEMBER  12,   1683.  171 

From  the  last  European  survival  of  the  Eastern 
Rome — for  ever  remember  that  a  more  abiding  sur-  ' 
vival  still  lingered  for  a  while  in  Asia — let  us  turn 
to  another  power  which  we  can  now  look  upon  as 
no  more  than  a  survival.,  the  last  direct  survival  of 
the  Western  Eome.  From  Constantinople  let  us 
turn  to  Vienna,  from  the  Palaiologos  to  the  Habsburg, 
from  the  last  Constantine  to  the  first  Leopold.  For 
two  hundred  and  thirty  years  the  flood  of  Ottoman 
conquest  had  swept  on  ;  it  was  at  last  to  be  stemmed. 
The  Turk  appeared,  as  he  had  appeared  already,  be- 
fore what  we  must  now  perchance  call  the  Imperial 
city  of  the  West.  But  he  fared  in  another  sort  from 
that  in  which  he  had  fared  before  the  Imperial  city 
of  the  East.  He  had  made  his  way  into  Constanti- 
nople ;  he  could  not  make  his  way  into  Vienna.  He 
made  his  way  into  Constantinople  over  the  corpse  of 
a  slaughtered  Emperor ;  from  Vienna  he  was  beaten 
back,  but  it  was  not  by  the  arm  of  an  Emperor  that 
he  was  beaten  back.  No  king  of  another  land  came 
to  the  help  of  Constantine ;  a  king  of  another  land 
did  come  to  the  help  of  Leopold.  Constantine  fell 
by  the  sword  of  a  foe  that  was  too  strong  for  him  ; 
Leopold  found  a  helper  who  was  stronger  than  his 
foe,  and  devoted  the  full  turnings  and  searchings  of 
an  Imperial  mind  to  find  out  with  how  little  sacrifice 
of  Imperial  dignity  he  could  pay  some  feeble  thanks 
to  the  man  who  had  saved  his  throne  and  life. 
Vienna  was  saved  for  Christendom  ;  it  never  shared 
the  fate  of  Belgrade  and  Buda.  But  it  was  the 
sword  of  the  Slave,  the  sword  of  the  Pole,  that  saved 


172  SURVIVALS  OF  EMPIRE. 

it.  Look  on  a  hundred  years,  and  the  debt  is  paid 
in  full.  Poland  is  wiped  out  from  the  list  of  nations, 
and  the  house  that  the  Pole  had  saved  takes  its  share 
of  the  spoils  of  its  deliverer. 

I  have  ended  my  tale  of  Kome,  my  tale  of  Eome 
in  her  many  shapes  and  stages,  in  the  last  feeble  sur- 
vivals of  her  power,  in  the  more  strange  survivals  of 
her  mere  style.  Once  more  I  have  to  meet  you  before 
the  year,  as  years  in  this  place  are  reckoned,  comes  to 
its  end.  As  I  began  by  speaking  of  a  world  on  which 
Kome  had  not  yet  risen,  I  must  end  by  speaking  of  a 
world  from  which  Eome  has  passed  away. 


LECTURE   VI. 

THE  WORLD  ROMELESS. 

I  SAID  in  the  opening  lecture  of  this  series  that 
one  of  the  most  wonderful  features  of  the  age  in 
which  we  live,  an  age  which  will  assuredly  take  its 
place  in  the  Universal  History  of  times  to  come  as 
one  of  the  most  memorable  of  ages,  is  that  the  world 
is  Romeless.  I  said  too  that  this  feature  of  the  most 
modern  times  is,  by  one  of  the  great  cycles  of  history, 
a  feature  which  takes  us  back  to  the  earliest  days  of 
European  life.  The  world  from  which  Rome  has 
passed  away  has  something  in  common  with  the 
world  in  which  Rome  had  never  shown  herself.  It 
has  something  in  common  with  it  which  it  has  not  in 
common  with  those  later  ages  during  which  Rome, 
in  one  shape  or  another,  under  one  form  of  influ- 
ence or  another,  was  the  acknowledged  centre  of  all 
European  and  Christian  lands.  But  this  is  one  of  those 
many  truths  which  can  be  grasped  only  by  those  who 
look  at  Eiu*opean  history  as  a  whole,  and  who  are 
not  led  away  by  the  delusive  voices  which  would 
teach  them  that  this  or  that  fragment  of  the  un- 
broken tale  can  be  mastered  by  itself  apart  from  the 
other  acts  of  the  one  drama.  He  who  shuts  up  his 
books  and  he  who  opens  his  books  at  any  arbitrary 


174  THE  WORLD  ROMELESS. 

point  in  Rome's  long  story  are  alike  shut  out  from 
any  true  conception  of  the  place  of  Rome  in  the 
world's  history ;  they  are  shut  out  from  understand- 
ing the  difference  between  an  age  in  which  Rome 
is  and  an  age  in  which  Rome  is  not.  To  their 
eyes  the  fact  that  the  world  is  Romeless  will  not 
seem  anything  wonderful,  anything  distinctive,  be- 
cause they  have  never  looked  with  any  searching 
gaze  at  the  ages  in  which  the  world  was  other- 
wise. Such  an  one  will  never  see  that  the  great 
feature  of  the  most  modern  times,  a  feature  which 
has  reached  its  height  in  the  times  in  which  we 
ourselves  live,  is  the  absence  of  any  such  centre  as 
the  world  so  long  gathered  itself  around.  And  if 
he  will  not  see  that  the  world  is  Romeless,  still 
less  will  he  see  that  even  the  Romeless  world  is  not 
as  though  Rome  had  never  been.  Rome  is  still 
eternal  in  her  influence  ;  the  world  in  truth  has 
been  for  ages  so  steeped  in  Roman  influences  that 
those  influences  have  ceased  to  be  Roman.  But 
Rome,  as  a  visible  and  acknowledged  centre,  has 
passed  away.  No  longer  does  an  undivided  world 
look  to  a  single  Rome  as  its  one  undoubted  head. 
No  longer  does  a  divided  world  look  to  an  Eastern 
and  a  Western  Rome  as  each  the  undoubted  head  of 
half  the  world  of  civilized  man.  Rome  oecumenical 
in  either  of  her  seats  has  become  a  thing  that  is  no 
longer.  The  younger  Rome  has  passed  from  us  to 
be  the  spoil  of  the  barbarian.  The  elder,  by  a  fate 
at  once  more  and  less  hopeful,  has  sunk  to  be  the  local 
capital  of  a  single  European  kingdom.    The  younger. 


MODERN  ROME  AND  CONSTANTINOPLE.       175 

in  her  present  distress,  has  the  loftier  hopes  for  the 
future.  Her  very  oppressors  have  in  some  sort  kept 
on  her  traditions;  they  have  kept  her  in  her  old 
place  as  the  head  of  something  more  than  a  mere 
local  realm.  We  are  far  more  likely  to  see  Christian 
Constantinople  again  step  into  her  old  heritage  as 
the  head  of  Eastern  Christendom  than  to  see  the 
lands  of  the  West  again  accept  the  headship  of 
the  elder  Kome  by  the  Tiber.  The  line  of  her 
Caesars  is  broken,  broken,  we  may  be  sure,  for  ever. 
Her  Pontiffs  have  not  wisdom  enough  to  see  how 
their  oecumenical  position  has  been  raised  by  de- 
liverance from  the  shackles  of  local  sovereignty. 
But  to  him  who  begins  at  the  middle  or  at  the  end, 
to  him  who  leaves  off  at  the  middle — to  him  who, 
under  the  influence  of  either  error,  has  not  given  his 
mind  to  grasp  the  whole  tale  from  the  kingship  on 
the  Palatine  to  the  kingship  on  the  Quirinal — the 
things  which  make  our  own  age  so  wonderful  are 
things  which  lack  a  meaning.  He  who  vainly 
dreams  that  he  will  better  understand  his  own  times 
by  beginning  his  historic  work  with  the  times  im- 
mediately before  them — he  who  listens  to  false 
charmers  who  bid  him  seek,  perhaps  historic  honours 
but  assuredly  not  historic  knowledge,  by  preferring 
the  flashy  glitter  of  some  sixth  or  seventh  period  to 
the  solid  work  of  his  Gregory  or  his  Einhard — he  will 
find  out — no,  he  will  never  learn  enough  to  find  out 
— that  there  is  no  royal  road  to  the  knowledge  even 
of  his  own  times.  His  penalty  will  be  to  walk  in  an 
age  as  strange  and  memorable  as  any  that  went 


176  THE  WORLD  ROMELESS. 

before   it,   and  not   to   know   in   how   strange   and 
memorable  an  age  it  is  in  which  he  is  walking. 

We  live  then  in  a  Romeless  age,  and  to  those  who 
have  eyes  to  see  it  is  one  of  the  chief  wonders 
of  our  age  that  it  is  Romeless.  But  our  age  is 
Romeless  because  we  live  in  a  world  from  which 
Rome  has  passed  away;  -those  far-gone  ages  were 
Romeless  because  Rome  had  not  yet  made  her 
way  to  the  place  which  the  world's  destiny  had 
marked  for  her.  The  position  of  those  ages  in  the 
general  tale  of  European  history  was  the  subject 
of  the  first  lecture  of  this  course  six  weeks  back. 
In  that  lecture  and  in  the  one  which  followed  it 
I  strove  to  point  out  how  Rome,  having  by  slow 
steps  risen  to  the  first  place  in  the  West,  burst 
suddenly  into  the  midst  of  another  political  system, 
a  system  of  kingdoms  and  commonwealths  which 
was  in  many  points  a  forestalling  of  the  political 
system  of  the  world  in  which  we  now  live.  And 
we  may  go  yet  further  back,  to  days  when  Rome 
was  so  far  from  being  the  head  of  the  world  that 
her  name  could  hardly  have  been  known  in  the 
world.  By  one  of  the  strange  cycles  of  history,  we 
who.  dwell  in  the  wide  world  of  modern  times,  the 
world  of  continents  and  oceans — nothing  better  shows 
its  vastness  than  that  we  are  driven  to  form  a  plural 
for  this  last  primaeval  name — have  in  some  points 
come  back  to  the  state  of  those  who  dwelled  in  the 
narrow  world  of  the  earliest  times,  the  little  world 
of  islands,  peninsulas,  and  inland  seas.  We  have 
come  back  to  the  state  of  things  that  was,  not  only 


THE  OLD  AND  THE  NEW  WORLD  177 

before  Kome  stood  forth  to  rule  the  nations,  but 
before  Macedonian  kingdoms  and  Greek  confedera- 
tions had  cut  short  the  right  of  every  single  town 
on  its  hill  or  in  its  island  to  act  as  a  sovereign  state 
in  the  afiairs  of  the  world.  Each  nation  now,  like 
each  city  then,  does  what  is  right  in  its  own  eyes. 
A  nation  now,  like  a  city  then,  may  be  kept  back 
from  the  exercise  of  its  inherent  powers  by  dread 
of  the  physical  strength  of  some  mightier  neighbour. 
But  the  nations  now,  like  the  cities  then,  acknowledge 
no  common  centre  of  lawful  rule,  no  power  which 
can  speak  to  all  with  an  authority  higher  than  that 
of  physical  strength.  From  our  age  the  great 
vision  of  Dante's  Monarchy  has  passed  away,  and 
we  have  so  far  gone  back  to  the  condition  of  the 
ages  before  whose  eyes  that  wondrous  vision  had 
never  shown  itself.  The  best  witness  to  this  fact 
is  to  be  found  in  the  acknowledged  importance 
and  the  confessed  difficulty  of  the  doctrine  of  Inter- 
national Law.  At  no  time  has  it  ever  been  more 
needful  than  it  is  now  to  have  a  system  of  rules 
by  which  a  number  of  independent  powers  shall 
acknowledge  themselves  to  be  bound.  At  no  time 
has  it  been  found  harder  to  enforce  that  system  of 
rules  by  any  practical  sanction.  The  simplest  way 
perhaps  is  that  the  weak  state  shall  be  held  bound 
to  the  strictest  observance  of  every  international 
rule  in  its  dealings  with  the  stronger,  but  that  the 
stronger  shall  be  held  to  be  absolved  from  the  like 
pedantic  minuteness  in  its  dealings  with  the  weaker. 
A  fancied  insult,  for  instance,  at  the  hands  of  Greece 

N 


178  THE  WORLD  ROME  LESS. 

is  held  to  demand  a  humiliating  atonement  which 
would  certainly  not  he  asked  for  in  the  like  case 
at  the  hands  of  Germany.  But  the  most  subtle 
International  lawyer  has  failed  to  devise  any  means, 
save  the  last  argument  of  all,  for  bringing  a  great 
power  to  reason  which,  to  put  it  delicately,  puts  its 
own  construction  on  international  rules,  and  is  so 
fully  convinced  of  the  truth  of  that  construction 
that  it  declines  to  submit  their  interpretation  to  the 
decision  of  any  arbiter.  So  it  was  in  the  days  when 
the  civilized  world  was  bounded  by  the  independent 
commonwealths  of  Greece.  In  theory  certain  rules 
or  customs  were  held  to  bind  every  Greek  state  in 
its  dealings  with  every  other  Greek  state.  Certain 
acts  which  were  deemed  lawful  if  done  towards 
barbarians  were  deemed  unlawful  if  done  towards 
fellow-Greeks.  Such  rules  differed  in  no  essential 
respect  from  the  International  Law  of  modem  times. 
There  is  simply  a  verbal  difficulty  in  applying  the 
name  to  the  old  Greek  world,  a  difficulty  arising 
out  of  the  fact  that,  in  our  present  state  of  things, 
nations  have  taken  the  place  of  cities.  But  among 
Greek  cities  there  was  just  the  same  difficulty  in 
finding  a  sanction  for  the  wholesome  rules  laid  down 
by  Greek  tradition  or  religion  which  there  is  in 
finding  the  like  sanction  now.  There  was  no  common 
temporal  authority;  we  can  hardly  say  that  there 
was  a  common  spiritual  authority.  The  Amphi- 
ktyonic  Council  had  but  feeble  claims  even  to  the 
last  position  ;  its  decrees  went  practically  for  nothing, 
unless  some  powerful  state  undertook  to  carry  them 


INTERNA TIONAL  LAW.  179 

out  for  Its  own  purposes,  and  claimed  in  return  to 
determine  what  they  should  be.  In  the  days  of 
the  great  Peloponnesian  war  we  do  not  hear  of  the 
Amphiktyons  at  all.  Then  and  later,  Athens,  Sparta, 
Thebes,  could  trifle  at  pleasure  with  the  rights  of 
a  weaker  city,  subject  only  to  the  chance  that  some 
other  among  the  stronger  cities  might  find  it  suit  its 
interests  to  assert  the  rights  of  the  weaker.  Every 
Greek  city  had  in  theory  an  equal  right  to  inde- 
pendence ;  but  Messend,  Skiond,  and  Plataia  felt 
how  hard  it  sometimes  was  to  assert  that  right. 
A  treaty  graven  on  a  stone  went  for  little,  an  Am- 
phiktyonic  decree  went  for  less,  when  a  powerful 
and  ambitious  city  had  other  purposes  to  carry  out. 
Such  a  treaty,  such  a  decree,  went  for  about  as 
much  as  the  agreement  of  a  modern  European 
congress  when  it  binds  itself  to  secure  the  freedom 
of  Epeiros  and  the  good  government  of  Armenia. 
The  voice  of  some  one  overbearing  city,  say  Sparta 
backed  by  the  will  of  the  Great  King,  counted  for 
far  more.  The  rise  of  the  Macedonian  power  under 
two  renowned  princes  gave  the  Greek  world  for  a 
short  space  a  centre  and  a  head.  International  law 
or  its  substitutes  went  for  little  when  Alexander, 
flushed  with  Asiatic  conquest,  wrote  to  all  the  cities  of 
Greece  to  restore  their  exiles.  But  when  the  Mace- 
donian kingdom  again  became  only  one  power  among 
many,  the  old  state  of  things  came  back  again  with 
the  needful  changes.  The  world  of  Greece  was  no 
longer  a  world  of  cities  only ;  it  was  a  world  in  which 
cities,  kingdoms,  and  confederations  all  played  their 

N  2 


180  THE  WORLD  ROME  LESS. 

part,  a  world  In  which  diplomacy  had  its  full  run,  in 
which  the  eastern  seas  of  Europe  were  ever  covered 
by  embassies  crossing  one  another  in  their  endless 
voyages  to  the  court  of  this  or  that  prince,  to  the 
assembly  of  this  or  that  confederation.  It  was  into 
this  busy  world  of  comphcated  International  dealings 
that  the  power  of  Eome  burst  like  a  thunderbolt.  All 
was  at  once  changed.  Under  the  Eoman  Peace,  indeed 
in  days  long  before  the  Roman  Peace  was  formally 
established,  as  soon  as  Rome  became  by  common 
consent  the  arbiter  of  the  Mediterranean  world. 
International  Law  had  small  opportunities  left  of 
showing  its  strength  or  its  weakness.  For  a  while 
the  independent  powers  of  the  civilized  world  re- 
ceived as  law  whatever  decrees  the  mightiest  among 
them,  the  Roman  Senate,  thought  good  to  put  forth 
in  each  particular  case.  As  kingdoms  sank  into 
provinces,  as  independent  cities  sank  into  munici- 
palities, the  law  of  the  one  commonwealth  into  whose 
substance  they  were  in  a  manner  merged  became 
the  immediate  law  of  the  whole  civilized  world,  with 
the  might  of  Caesar  Augustus  as  its  sanction.  There 
might  still  be  a  jus  gentium  between  Rome  and 
Parthia;  to  settle  such  questions  as  might  arise  at 
Antioch,  at  Gades,  or  at  Eboracum,  there  was  only 
the  law  of  the  Roman  city  of  which  all  other  cities 
had  become  suburbs. 

As  long  as  any  shadow  of  Roman  power  lasted, 
the  theory  that  there  lived  on  at  Rome  a  central 
judgement-seat  for  the  world  was  never  wholly  for- 
gotten.  As  East  and  West  became,  not  only  separate 


ROME  THE  JUDGE.  181 

but  hostile,  as  the  Western  Pontiff  stepped  for  many- 
purposes  into  the  place  of  the  Western  Emperor, 
it  was  the  ecclesiastical  rather  than  the  Imperial 
Eome  to  which,  the  nations  sought  as  their  common 
judge.  Still  in  either  case  it  was  Rome  that  spoke  ; 
the  world  at  least  of  Western  Europe  stiU  acknow- 
ledged a  centre  by  the  Tiber,  though  that  centre  might 
have  shifted  from  the  Regia  and  the  Septizonium 
to  the  Lateran  and  the  Vatican.  The  world  of  which 
the  Lateran  and  the  Vatican  were  centres  was  pre- 
sently cut  short  by  a  spiritual  revolt.  And  that 
spiritual  revolt  was  largely  measured  by  national 
distinctions.  As  Eastern  Europe,  Greek  and  Slavonic 
Europe,  had  never  admitted  the  spuitual  dominion 
of  the  Western  Eome,  so  now  Teutonic  Europe  cast 
that  dominion  aside.  Nations  which  had,  in  the 
teeth  of  Emperors,  asserted  their  independence  in 
the  affairs  of  the  world,  now  asserted  their  inde- 
pendence no  less  in  the  range  of  man's  spiritual 
being.  The  Church  of  Eome  remained,  hke  the 
Empire  of  Eome,  a  power  mighty  and  venerable, 
but  a  power  confined,  if  not  within  the  bounds  of 
a  single  nation,  at  least  within  the  bounds  of  a 
group  of  nations  closely  connected  in  history  and 
speech.  As  there  was  a  Holy  Eoman  Empire  of 
the  German  Nation,  so  there  was  now  a  Holy 
Eoman  Church  of  the  Latin-speaking  folk.  In  one 
important  point  indeed  we  may  say  that  the  range 
of  the  new  Eoman  power  was  narrowed  yet  further. 
There  was  a  time  when  the  bishopric  of  Eome,  with 
all  that  the  bishopric  of  Eome  carried  with  it,  was, 


182  THE  WORLD  ROMELESS. 

in  practice  as  well  as  in  theory,  open  to  men  of  all 
nations  that  admitted  the  spiritual  power  of  Eome. 
Now,  though  no  law  forbids  the  election  of  a  Pope 
of  any  nation,  in  practice  the  choice  of  the  electors 
has  long  been  confined  to  men  of  Italian  birth.  This 
privilege  indeed  might  be  looked  on  as  in  some 
sort  a  survival  or  revival  of  local  Koman  supremacy; 
more  truly  it  is  a  falling  back  on  days  before  the 
spiritual  supremacy  of  Eome  began.  It  is  a  falling 
back  on  times  when  the  Eoman  church,  still  a  local 
church  though  the  first  of  local  churches,  naturally 
sought  for  its  chiefs  among  its  own  members.  But 
so  far  as  it  is  a  falling  back  in  either  sense,  it  is 
a  falling  back  in  a  shape  better  fitted  for  later  times  ; 
here  again  the  nation  takes  the  place  of  the  city; 
Italy  takes  the  place  of  Eome.  In  short  the  Eoman 
Church,  still  in  theory  coextensive  with  the  world, 
once  really  coextensive  with  Western  Europe,  has 
shrunk  up  into  a  body  mainly  Latin  with  a  head 
exclusively  Italian.  It  is  indeed  only  in  a  broad 
and  general  sense  that  we  can  take  such  propositions 
as  that  the  Latin  nations  clave  to  Eome  while  the 
Teutonic  nations  fell  away.  That  there  are  many 
exceptions  needs  no  proof.  It  is  plain  that  the 
Roman  Church  can  still  boast  herself  of  not  a  few 
Teutonic  and  Slavonic  subjects.  It  is  no  less  plain 
that  there  are  here  and  there,  though  in  smaller 
numbers,  men  of  Latin  speech,  both  in  East  and 
West,  who  are  not  her  subjects.  Still  the  general 
proposition  is  none  the  less  true  in  its  general  sense. 
It  marks,  to  say  the  least,  general  tendencies  which 


THE  ROMAN  CHURCH.  183 

run  a  certain  course  wherever  there  is  no  special 
cause  to  hinder  them.  If  we  look  narrowly  into 
each  case  of  exception,  we  shall  often  see  some  special 
cause,  commonly  some  poHtical  cause,  which  accounts 
for  the  anomaly.  We  may  note  further  that,  as  the 
Empire  became  more  purely  German  and  the  Papacy 
became  more  purely  Latin,  the  old  feuds  between  Em- 
pire and  Papacy  died  out.  The  Austrian  Emperors, 
Catholic  chiefs  of  an  Empire  mainly  Protestant,  had 
no  such  warfare  to  wage  with  the  Eoman  see  as 
had  been  waged  by  the  Franconians  and  the  Swa- 
bians.  But  as  Empire  and  Papacy  alike  came  to 
be  thus  shut  up  within  narrowed  and  definite  limits, 
neither  could  any  longer  act  as  a  common  centre, 
even  for  the  Western  lands.  For  better  or  for  worse, 
the  world  has  fallen  back  on  an  older  state  of  things. 
Instead  of  a  single  Kome  as  the  acknowledged  head 
of  all,  instead  of  two  rival  Komes,  each  claiming  the 
headship  of  its  own  half  of  the  civilized  world,  it  is 
now  open  to  every  nation,  as  in  the  earlier  day  it 
was  open  to  every  city,  to  do,  as  far  as  it  finds  to  do 
it,  that  which  is  right  in  its  own  eyes.  Every  nation 
now,  as  every  city  then,  may  play  the  part  of  Kome 
for  the  years  or  for  the  moments  through  which  it  may 
keep  enough  of  physical  strength  to  play  that  part. 

The  latest  times  then  are  in  truth  a  return  to  the 
earliest  times,  with  this  difference,  that  nations  have 
taken  the  place  of  cities.  Two  of  the  masters  of  his- 
tory in  later  times  have  pointed  out  the  close  analogy 
between  the  mutual  relations  of  the  cities  of  old 
Greece  and  those  of  the  nations  of  modem  Europe. 


184  THE  WORLD  ROME  LESS. 

The  lesson  has  been  taught  us  in  its  fulness  alike  by 
Arnold  and  by  Grote.  It  hardly  fell  within  the 
scope  of  either  master  to  point  out  how  truly  the 
likeness  is  a  cycle,  how  the  later  state  of  things  is  a 
return  to  the  earlier,  after  the  existence  for  many 
ages  of  a  state  of  things  wholly  unlike  either.  They 
were  hardly  called  on  to  dwell  upon  the  causes  which 
have  brought  about  this  return  to  an  earlier  state  of 
things,  or  on  the  causes  which  made  that  return,  as 
every  return  to  an  earlier  state  of  things  must  be,  a 
return  only  partial,  a  return  largely  modified  by  the 
events  which  have  taken  place  in  the  meanwhile.  It 
was  enough  for  them  to  point  the  analogy.  And  the 
analogy  is  answer  enough  to  those  shallowest  of  the 
shallow  who  go  about  winning  cheers  from  half-taught 
audiences  by  declaiming  on  the  uselessness  of  study- 
ing the  institutions  of  "  petty  states  "  and  by  asking 
what  can  be  gained  by  knowing  about  battles  fought 
two  thousand  years  ago.  The  substitution  of  the 
nation  for  the  city  is,  from  one  side,  part  of  the  pro- 
cess which  we  may,  for  our  purposes,  call  the  physical 
growth  of  the  world.  The  world  in  which  we  live 
is  in  physical  extent  vastly  bigger  than  the  first 
civiUzed  world  of  old  Greece,  vastly  bigger  than  the 
far  wider  Mediterranean  world  of  Kome.  What  the 
.^gaean  and  its  borderlands  once  were,  what  the  Medi- 
terranean and  its  borderlands  once  were,  Ocean  and 
his  borderlands,  his  borderlands  spread  over  so  many 
continents  and  islands,  are  now.  No  one  ought  to 
be  more  ready  than  students  of  political  history 
to  welcome  every  modern  scientific  invention.     The 


PHYSICAL  INVENTIONS.  185 

discoveries  which  have  gone  so  far  to  annihilate  dis- 
tance ought  to  call  up  our  deepest  thankfulness.  But 
we  are  perhaps  thankful  for  them  on  other  grounds 
than  those  for  which  they  are  prized  by  their  own  in- 
ventors ;  we  are  certainly  thankful  for  them  on  other 
grounds  from  those  for  which  they  are  prized  by 
those  who  go  about  bragging  about  the  worthless- 
ness  even  of  the  knowledge  of  times  when  those  in- 
ventions were  unknown.  The  steamer,  the  railway, 
the  telegraph,  are  wholesome  and  necessary  institu- 
tions ;  they  are  wholesome  and  necessary  in  order  to 
hinder  man's  intellectual  and  political  life  from  being 
crushed  by  mere  physical  extension.  They  allow  the 
England  of  our  day  to  come  nearer  to  the  Athens  of 
Perikl6s  than  the  England  of  a  hundred  years  backj 
of  fifty  years  back.  They  allow  the  United  States 
of  America,  spread  over  a  world  wider  than  any  age 
of  Eoman  empire,  to  abide  as  a  Confederation  free  and 
united,  the  true  fellow  of  the  old  Achaia  shut  up 
within  the  bounds  of  Peloponnesos.  They  are  needful 
in  an  age  when  nations  have  taken  the  place  of  cities, 
that  they  may  make  the  nations  really  the  political 
equals  of  the  cities.  You  may  again,  some  of  you, 
chance  to  hear  some  smatterer  sneering  at  petty  states 
ignorant  of  the  great  discoveries  of  natural  science. 
Tell  him  that  the  highest  use  of  the  discoveries  of 
natural  science  has  been  to  raise  large  states  to  the 
political  level  of  small  ones. 

The  causes  which  have  led  to  the  substitution  of 
nations  for   cities  in  the   modern  world  are  many. 


186  THE  WORLD  ROME  LESS. 

many  more  than  I  can  attempt  to  deal  with  in  this 
lecture  ;  but  not  a  few  of  them  are  nearly  connected 
with  the  main  subject  of  this  course,  the  condition  of 
Europe  in  its  three  great  stages,  before  Eome,  under 
Rome,  and  after  Rome.  I  long  ago  defined  modern 
history,  if  the  formula  has  any  meaning  at  all,  to 
mean  the  history  of  the  times  in  which  the  Teutonic 
and  Slavonic  nations  have  held  the  foremost  place. 
Now  among  both  these  races  the  tendency  to  look  to 
the  city  as  the  natural  centre  of  social  and  political 
life  has  always  been  far  less  developed  than  it  was 
among  the  southern  nations.  We  may  say  southern 
nations  in  general ;  for  if  the  highest  developement  of 
the  city  belongs  to  Greece,  yet  it  is  also  very  strong 
in  Italy — let  Rome  and  Capua  bear  witness ;  and  if 
the  growth  of  the  city  life  w^as  much  less  perfect 
among  Oauls  and  Iberians  than  it  was  among  Greeks 
and  Italians,  yet  Gauls  and  Iberians  had  certainly 
made  a  nearer  approach  to  it  than  Slaves  or  Teutons. 
The  causes  of  this  difference,  the  detailed  shapes  in 
which  this  difference  shows  itself,  if  I  ever  speak  of 
them  at  all,  I  must  speak  of  some  other  time,  and 
after  all  they  perhaps  rather  belong  to  the  province 
of  the  Reader  in  Anthropology  than  to  mine.  For 
the  present  purpose  we  may  simply  accept  the  fact. 
Take  the  highest  type  of  each  class.  Greek  political 
society  starts  from  the  city ;  separate  cities  may  be 
grouped  into  confederations.  Teutonic  political  so- 
ciety starts  from  the  tribe ;  separate  tribes  may  be 
fused  into  nations.  I  use  the  word  grouj)  in  one 
case,  the  word  fuse  in  the   other,   because  in   the 


CITIES  AND  TRIBES  AND  THEIR  UNION.      187 

Teutonic  case  the  union  has  both  happened  far  more 
universally  and  has  been  far  more  perfect  than  in 
the  Greek  case.  We  must  take  one  more  glance  at 
the  old  free  Hellas,  before  the  growth  of  Kome,  before 
the  growth  of  Macedonia.  Its  ideal  is  the  perfectly 
independent  city ;  it  is  only  the  experience  of  a  later 
age  which  leads  cities  to  join  into  confederations. 
The  process  is  in  some  sort  an  unwilling  one;  we 
may  be  sure  that  Sikyon  and  Corinth  would  never 
have  given  up  one  jot  of  their  perfect  separate  inde- 
pendence through  any  smaller  motive  than  the  need  of 
union  among  cities  that  had  to  escape  or  to  throw 
off  Macedonian  domination.  The  Teutonic  political 
unit,  the  tribe,  or  whatever  we  call  the  body  of  set- 
tlers who  occupy  a  sliire  or  gd,  holds  another  position. 
Neighbouring  and  kindred  tribes  join  into  a  nation — 
at  first  most  likely  they  join  into  some  group  greater 
than  the  tribe  and  less  than  the  nation — with  far 
greater  ease  than  Greek  cities  join  into  confederations. 
Some  of  the  reasons  are  obvious.  A  city  has  in  the 
nature  of  things  a  more  distinct  and  abiding  political 
being  than  a  mere  district,  a  mere  space  on  the  map. 
Two  shires  may  be  physically  rolled  into  one,  and  the 
rolling  into  one  does  not  carry  with  it  any  necessary 
political  subjection  of  one  part  of  the  new  whole  to 
the  other.  Two  cities  can  seldom  be  physically 
rolled  into  one  ;  the  political  union  of  two  cities  is 
necessarily  more  imperfect  than  that  of  two  districts, 
and  it  is  hard  to  unite  them  at  all  without  giving 
some  degree  of  superiority  to  one  over  the  other. 
Again,  the  tendency  of  a  tribe,  whether  wandering  or 


188  THE  WORLD  ROMELESS. 

settled  in  its  district,  is  to  the  headship  of  a  personal 
chief,  whether  hereditary  or  elective  ;  if  the  assemblv 
is  the  body  of  the  tribe,  the  duke,  judge,  ealdorman, 
is  the  head.  The  tendency  of  a  city,  whether  aristo- 
cratic or  democratic,  is  to  mere  temporary  magistrates, 
who  are  not  in  the  same  sense  heads  either  of  the 
city  or  of  its  assembly.  Two  or  more  dukes  or  ealdor- 
men  can  give  way  to  a  single  king,  or  they  can  go  on 
exercising  their  office  under  a  common  king,  with 
very  little  shock  to  the  constitution  and  habits  of  the 
land  and  its  folk.  The  assembly  of  the  enlarged  dis- 
trict is  simply  an  enlargement  of  the  separate  assem- 
blies of  the  two  districts.  It  is  by  no  means  so  easy 
to  fuse  the  assemblies  and  the  magistracies  of  two 
separate  cities  into  one.  The  attempt  is  recorded  to 
have  been  once  made  in  historic  Greece  ;  Corinth  for 
a  while,  no  very  long  while,  merged  her  separate 
being  in  that  of  Argos ;  but  before  long  Argos  and 
Corinth  were  again  separate  and  independent  cities. 
In  our  own  country  the  process  by  which  the  great 
kingdoms  of  the  Angles  and  Saxons  were  joined  into 
the  one  kingdom  of  England  is  perfectly  well  known ; 
we  know  nothing  of  the  details  of  the  process  by 
which  those  seven  or  eight  great  kingdoms,  those 
three  specially  great  kingdoms,  were  gradually  formed 
by  the  union  of  earlier  and  smaller  settlements.  In 
most  cases  we  can  see  that  such  an  union  did  take 
place ;  we  can  even  see  that  the  process  of  union 
took  different  shapes  in  one  kingdom  and  in  another ; 
but  the  details  are  hidden  from  us.  One  reason  of 
our  ignorance  among  many  may  well  be  that  the 


INSTAIsCES  IN  GAUL  AND  BRITAIN.  189 

process  was  gradual  and  easy,  carrying  with  it  no 

great  immediate  change.     We  need  not  suppose  that 

the  union  of  Wessex  or  of  Mercia  was  wrought  by  a 

series  of  treacherous  murders  hke  those  which  united 

the  whole  Frankish  nation  under  Chlodowig.     But 

the  ease  with  which  Chlodowig  could  root  out  all 

the  other  Prankish  kings,  the  seeming  good  will  with 

which  he  was  received  as  king  by  each  division  of  the 

nation,  shows   that  the   process   was  an  easy   one. 

Even  when  it  was  done  by  force,   it   would  carry 

with  it  no  special  wrong  beyond  the  force  by  which 

it  was  done.     The  Eipuarians  really  lost  nothing  by 

accepting  the  SaHan  king. 

At  a  later  time  the  opposite  process  has  taken 

place  in  many   lands.     Gaul  and  Germany  after  a 

very  near  approach  to  union,  Italy  after  an  approach 

far   more   distant,   split  up  again  into  a  crowd  of 

states,  practically  if  not  formally  independent.     The 

still  abiding  theory  of  the  Empire  forbade  either  the 

free  city  or  the  duchy  or   county  to  put  on  that 

avowed  independence  which  had  belonged  to  every 

free  Greek  city,  to  every  barbarian  kingdom,  in  the 

days  before  the  Empire  was.    But  practically  cities  and 

principalities  took  to  themselves  all  the  powers  of 

independent  states,  even  to  that  of  making  war  on 

their  overlord.     In  Gaul  indeed,  besides  the  splitting 

up  of  the  land  among  the  dukes  and  counts,  there 

was  the  splitting  off  of  the  land  itself  from  the  body 

of  the  Empire.     As  the  German  poet  sings  ; 

"Et  simul  a  nostro  secessit  Gallia  regno, 
Nos  priscum  regni  morem  servamus,  at  ilia 
Jure  suo  gaudet,  nostras  jam  nescia  legis." 


190  THE  WOULD  ROME  LESS. 

In  tliafc  part  of  Gaul  which  became  France  in  the 
later  sense,  we  might  even  say  that  a  nation  was 
forming  and  splitting  in  pieces  at  the  same  moment. 
It  is  hard  to  distinguish  the  process  bv  which  the 
house  of  Robert  the  Strong  became  Dukes  of  the 
French  from  that  by  which  they  became  Kings  of 
the  French.  In  either  case  we  see  that  the  word 
Franci  now  means,  at  least  west  of  the  Maes  and 
the  Saone,  something  very  unlike  what  it  had  meant 
in  the  days  of  Chlodowig.  The  new  nation,  the 
nation  formed  out  of  three  elements,  the  Misclivolk 
der  Franzosen,  the  nation  which  still  kept  in  Latin 
the  name  of  the  old  Teutonic  Franks,  is  fast  forming. 
Its  language  is  forming  ;  there  is  a  lingua  Romana 
of  Northern  Gaul,  which  is  felt  to  have  become 
distinct  from  the  lingua  Latina  of  books,  which  is 
felt  before  long  to  be  distinct  from  the  other  forms 
of  the  lingua  Romana  in  Italy,  Spain,  and  Southern 
Gaul.  There  is  a  French  people,  speaking  a  French 
tongue.  But  the  nation,  while  forming,  is  splitting 
asunder.  At  the  very  moment  when  the  duchy  of 
France  is  changing  into  the  kingdom  of  France,  a 
crowd  of  smaller  duchies  and  counties  are  falling  off 
from  it.  By  the  strangest  chance  of  all,  the  duchy 
is  dismembered  on  behalf  of  Scandinavian  settlers. 
Their  coming  might  have  been  almost  expected  to 
call  into  fresh  life  the  waning  Teutonic  element  in 
Gaul.  In  truth  the  new  comers  from  the  North, 
while  keeping  aU  their  native  energy,  became  disciples 
of  French  speech  and  French  culture  ;  and  it  was  in 
truth  their  help  which  enabled  the  French  kingdom 


GROWTH  OF  FRANCE.  191 

to  come  into  being.  The  typical  Romance  nation 
was  thus  formed,  itself  a  nation  in  the  strictest 
sense,  though  it  has  since  done  much  to  absorb  and 
assimilate  parts  of  the  other  nations  on  its  borders. 
Yet  we  may  perhaps  see  in  the  growth  of  the 
French  nation,  at  least  as  compared  with  England 
and  Scandinavia,  some  influences  from  the  city-life 
of  more  southern  lands.  The  nation  grows  round 
a  city  in  a  way  in  which  no  Teutonic  nation  has 
done  ;  Paris  is  the  centre,  nay  the  cradle,  of  France 
in  a  way  in  which  no  chief  city  of  any  Teutonic 
land  can  be  said  to  be.  The  other  cities,  the 
ancient  heads  of  tribes,  kept  a  headship  over  the 
districts  which  shared  their  names  such  as  never 
belonged  to  the  towns  of  England,  When  we  pass 
out  of  France  into  Southern  Gaul,  we  find  another 
state  of  things,  a  state  of  things  approaching  to  that 
which  is  to  be  seen  in  Italy,  a  state  of  things  far 
more  nearly  recalling  the  elder  state  of  Southern 
Europe.  In  both  lands  the  cities,  though  not  form- 
ing, as  in  old  Greece,  the  whole  political  life  of  the 
country,  are  a  conspicuous  element ;  in  Italy  they 
are  the  predominant  element.  As  the  power  of  the 
Emperors  gradually  died  out  in  their  kingdoms  of 
Italy  and  Burgundy,  the  land  split  up  into  a  crowd 
of  practically  independent  states,  among  which  free 
commonwealths  again  played  their  part  alongside  of 
principalities.  On  the  greatness  of  the  Italian  cities 
I  need  not  now  dwell;  but  it  is  important  to  re- 
member, first,  that,  though  the  history  of  the  cities 
is  the  most  brilliant  and  the  most  attractive  part  of 


192  THE  WORLD  ROMELESS. 

mediaeval  Italian  history,  yet  the  cities  never  spread 
over  the  whole  land,  as  they  did  in  old  Greece  ; 
secondly,  that  the  political  phaenomena  of  Italy 
appear,  though  with  less  brilliancy  and  for  a  shorter 
time,  in  the  neighbouring  lands  of  Gaul.  Provence, 
the  land  once  so  deeply  touched  by  Greek  influences, 
had  for  a  moment  her  commonwealths  no  less  than 
Lombardy.  Massaha,  which  had  braved  the  might 
of  Caesar,  again  braved  the  might  of  Charles  of  Anjou, 
and  found  the  Frenchman  a  far  harsher  conqueror 
than  the  Romau.  Aquitaine  too,  the  other  land  of 
the  tongue  of  oc,  if  not  so  distinctly  republican 
as  Provence,  yet  stands  distinguished  from  France 
as  emphatically  a  land  of  civic  growth  and  civic 
privilege.  The  importance  and  independence  of  the 
cities  grow  as  we  go  on  a  south-eastward  journey 
through  England,  France,  Aquitaine,  Provence,  and 
Italy. 

We  have  been  opposing  cities  to  nations ;  but  it 
is  easier  to  define  a  city  than  to  define  a  nation. 
I  think  we  may  say,  at  least  for  our  purpose,  that  the 
ideal  nation  is  found  when  all  the  speakers  of  the 
same  tongue  on  a  continuous  territory  are  united  into 
a  single  political  whole,  which  includes  no  speakers  of 
other  tongues.  The  nation  in  short  should  have 
unity  of  speech  and  unity  of  government.  It  would 
be  hard  to  find  a  nation  which  exactly  answers  this 
definition,  but  the  nearer  a  political  body  answers  to 
it,  the  nearer  surely  does  it  come  to  the  highest  type 
of  a  nation.  I  think  that,  when  we  find  anything 
else,  when  we  find  men  of  several  tongues  under  the 


DEFINITION  OF  A  NATION.  193 

same  government  or  men  of  the  same  tongue  under 
several  governments,  we  instinctively  ask  the  reason. 
The  reason  may  be  a  good  one  or  it  may  not ;  but  we 
cannot  help  asking  the  reason ;  the  thing  is,  at  the 
first  look  of  it,  an  anomaly.  Now  free  cities,  with 
all  their  merits,  are  the  greatest  of  all  legitimate 
hindrances  to  national  unity.  I  say  of  legitimate 
hindrances,  of  hindrances  which  come  of  themselves 
and  which  have  something  to  be  said  for  them,  as 
distinguished  from  hindrances  caused  by  external  and 
unrighteous  force.  Italian  unity  was  impossible  as 
long  as  Milan  and  Venice  were  kept  apart  from  the 
Italian  body  by  the  brute  force  of  the  House  of 
Austria ;  but  Italian  unity  was  no  less  impossible  in 
the  days  when  Milan  and  Venice — Milan  for  a  moment, 
Venice  for  ages — played  a  part  in  the  affairs  of  the 
world  as  independent  commonwealths.  Italy,  the 
land  of  free  cities,  has,  largely  because  it  had  been 
the  land  of  free  cities,  been  of  all  the  lands  of  Europe 
that  which  most  thoroughly  split  asunder,  that  which 
most  thoroughly  became,  in  the  well-known  words  of 
her  enemy,  a  mere  geographical  expression.  Ger- 
many, in  her  most  divided  days,  was  still  far  from 
being  so  utterly  divided  as  Italy.  Save  during  the 
few  years  of  French  ascendency,  her  princes  and  cities 
always  kept  up  some  kind  of  mutual  relations  towards 
one  another.  Germany  always  had  a  national  Diet ; 
Italy  had  none. 

The  Italian  nation  has  bee  a  at  last  united  in  our 
own  days,  and  we  all  rejoiced  in  its  union.  Yet  we 
may  be  allowed  to  doubt  whether  the  union  was  not 

o 


194  THE  WORLD  EO  ME  LESS. 

a  little  too  speedy  and  a  little  too  thorough.  It  is 
surely  carrying  unity  too  far  to  wipe  out  all  traces  of 
the  independent  being,  for  most  purposes  to  wipe  out 
the  very  name,  of  such  a  land  as  Sicily.  It  jars  on 
our  feelings  to  find  that,  while  Ireland  at  least  forms 
part  of  the  royal  style  of  its  sovereign,  Sicily  is  no 
longer  even  a  geographical  expression.  The  island 
realm  of  Roger  has  sunk  to  be  seven  provinces  of  the 
kingdom  on  the  mainland.  And  there  is  another  re- 
sult of  Italian  unity,  a  result  in  which  we  may  rejoice 
without  drawbacks,  but  which  still  has  somewhat  of 
sadness  about  it  as  finally  ending  that  great  phase  of 
the  history  of  Europe  with  which  we  have  throughout 
been  dealing.  Never  were  ties  with  the  past  so  fully 
snapped  as  when  the  army  of  Italy  entered  liberated 
Eome.  Of  all  novelties  in  European  history  the 
greatest  was  when  Rome  became  the  centre  of  a 
dominion  with  acknowledged  metes  and  bounds,  the 
head  in  short  of  a  local  Italian  kingdom.  "Rome  the 
capital  of  Italy"  was  a  formula  which  might  well 
gladden  our  hearts  ;  but  it  was  a  formula  which 
formally  swept  away  the  oecumenical  position,  the 
oecumenical  traditions,  of  Rome.  Till  that  day  some 
shadow  of  her  oecumenical  position  had  lived  on. 
Under  the  temporal  dominion  of  her  Bishops,  she  was 
indeed  the  temporal  capital,  not  of  all  Italy  but  of 
a  part.  But  the  temporal  headship  of  the  part  did 
not  wipe  out  the  oecumenical  position  as  is  done  by 
the  temporal  headship  of  the  whole.  Rome  was  not 
the  mere  head  of  the  Papal  States ;  the  Papal  States 
was  something  which  her  Bishops  held  as  a  temporal 


ROME  THE  CAPITAL  OF  ITALY.  195 

appendage  to  their  position  as  Bishops  of  the  oecu- 
menical city.  But  the  kingdom  of  Italy  is  not  an 
appendage  to  Borne;  Eome  is  the  head  of  the  king- 
dom. The  whole  is  greater  than  its  part ;  Kome,  by 
her  own  free  will  and  by  the  free  will  of  Italy,  has 
become  less  than  Italy.  By  becoming  the  willing 
head  of  an  Italian  kingdom  she  has  formally  cast 
aside  her  Imperial  traditions  as  they  were  not  cast 
aside  when  brute  force  made  her  the  head  of  a  French 
department.  The  deliverance  of  1870  was  the  formal 
record  of  the  fact  that,  in  the  sense  in  which  I  used 
the  words  in  the  opening  of  this  lecture,  the  world  is 
Eomeless. 

While  Italy  then,  the  special  land  of  free  cities, 
was  slow  in  rising  to  national  unity,  the  neighbouring 
land  in  which  free  cities  showed  themselves  only  for 
a  moment  has  never  reached  national  unity  at  all. 
Bondage  to  the  modern  map,  the  familiar  use  of 
geographical  names  only  in  their  most  modern  sense, 
hinders  men  from  seeing  that  the  lands  of  Southern 
Gaul,  the  lands  of  the  tongue  of  oc,  that  is  Aquitaine 
and  the  Imperial  Burgundy,  had  in  them  aU  the 
elements  of  national  life  just  as  truly  as  Italy  or 
Spain,  or  as  that  very  France  in  which  their  national 
being  has  been  merged.  We  are  apt  to  talk  as  if, 
because  those  lands  are  French  now,  therefore  they 
have  been  French  from  all  eternity,  or  at  least  as  if 
it  had  been  in  the  eternal  fitness  of  things  that  they 
should  become  French  some  day.  Aquitaine  indeed 
owed  a  formal  and  nominal  homage  to  the  French 
crown  ;  but  Provence  and  the  other  Burgundian  lands 

o  2 


196  THE  WORLD  ROME  LESS. 

were  as  fully  independent  of  the  Kings  of  Paris  as  any 
land  of  Spain  or  Italy.  The  Karolingian  dominion, 
that  Frankish  kingdom  which  had  grown  into  a 
Western  Empire  of  Eome,  broke  up,  as  our  own 
Chronicler  has  told  us  better  than  anv  other  record, 
into  the  four  kingdoms  of  Germany,  Burgundy,  Italy, 
and  the  Western  realm  that  was  to  become  France.  In 
the  course  of  ages  the  Western  kingdom  has  annexed 
the  Middle  kingdom ;  it  might  have  been  the  order 
of  things  that  the  Middle  kingdom  should  annex  the 
Western.  The  course  of  the  world  s  history  might 
have  been  that,  instead  of  Aries,  Vienne,  or  Lyons 
bowing  to  Paris,  Paris  should  bow  to  Aries,  Vienne, 
or  Lyons.  In  a  land  whose  geography  was  so  largely 
ruled  by  ecclesiastical  divisions,  it  might  not  have 
seemed  wonderful  if  the  seat  of  the  Primate  of 
Primates  or  of  the  Primate  of  all  the  Gauls  had  won 
even  temporal  precedence  over  the  simple  bishopric 
of  Saint  Denys  and  Saint  German.  The  reason  why 
no  South-Gaulish  nationality  was  able  to  maintain 
itself  is  most  likely  to  be  found  in  the  specially 
divided  political  relations  of  those  lands.  Aquitaine 
and  the  Imperial  Burgundy  have  so  much  in  com- 
mon, so  much  that  is  utterly  unlike  anything  in 
France,  that,  had  they  had  the  faintest  chance  of  po- 
litical union,  they  might  have  formed  a  true  nation. 
But  there  was  no  moment,  under  Eomans,  under 
Goths,  under  Franks,  when  the  two  lands  formed 
a  political  whole  apart  from  any  other  land.  Aqui- 
taine and  Burgundy  were  ever  parted,  each  by  itself 
was  split  in  pieces,  while  Neustria  and  Austria  ever 


AQUITAINE  AND  BURGUNDY.  197 

kept  some  measure  of  union,  enough  to  enable  them 
to  grow  into  the  great  realms  of  France  and  Germany. 
And  so  the  Kings  of  Paris  could  bit  by  bit  swallow 
up  the  divided  land.  They  could  not  only  annex  the 
lands  west  of  Ehone  which  owed  them  a  formal 
homage,  but  they  could  spread  their  power,  slowly 
and  surely,  over  the  fairer  lands,  the  more  royal 
cities,  which  knew  no  king  but  Csesar. 

But  a  fragment  has  escaped.  Cities  there  still  are 
of  the  old  Burgundian  realm,  cities  both  of  Romance 
and  of  Teutonic  speech,  from  which  the  kingship  of 
Csesar  has  passed  away,  and  which  have  not  bowed 
the  neck  to  any  meaner  lord.  The  Middle  kingdom 
still  has  its  representative  in  Europe;  but  that  repre- 
sentative is  no  longer  a  kingdom  but  a  free  confedera- 
tion. Massalia  the  twice  free — Aquae  Sextiae  with 
her  memories  of  Roman  victory  and  Provencal  count- 
ship — Arelate  where  kings  took  their  crown  in  life 
and  Vienna  that  sheltered  them  in  death — Lugdunum 
whose  name  once  spread  to  the  Ocean  and  the  British 
sea — all  these  have  passed  away;  but  Lausanne  and 
Geneva  still  sit  unchained  beside  their  lake — modem 
freedom  has  not  wiped  out  the  memory  of  ancient 
kingship  at  Neufchatel  and  Payerne — Basel,  Basilia, 
in  her  very  name  brings  up  the  thoughts  of  Empire, 
fit  thoughts  in  a  city  where  men  so  long  defied  the 
claims  of  Rome  in  her  newer  garb — and  high  above 
them  all,  younger  and  mightier,  still  stands  the  city 
by  the  Aar,  the  home  of  old  patricians,  the  city 
looking  forth  upon  her  subject  mountains,  the  Bern  of 
Berchthold,  yet  nobler  than  the  Bern  of  Theodoric, 


198  THE  WORLD  ROME  LESS. 

the  city  which,  in  days  when  the  Middle  kingdom 

might  seem  to  have  been  forgotten,  a  poet  of  her  own 

could  greet  in  a  twofold  garb, 

"  Als  Krone  im  Burgundeureich, 
Als  freier  Stadte  Krone. 

There  is  thus  still  a  free  and  abiding  fragment  of 
the  old  realm  of  that  King  Boso  who,  when  men 
questioned  his  kingship,  could  tell  them  that  he  was 
"Dei  gratia  id  quod  sum."  But  of  a  Burgundian 
nationality  Europe  now  knows  no  trace.  The  frag- 
ment of  free  Burgundy  that  is  left  has  joined  with 
two  other  brands  snatched  from  the  burning,  a  frag- 
ment of  Germany,  a  fragment  of  Italy,  to  form 
a  political  nation,  none  the  less  truly  a  political 
nation  because  it  does  not  coincide  with  any  nation 
defined  by  blood  or  speech.  A  fragment  of  the 
English  folk,  a  fragment  of  the  British,  a  fragment  of 
the  Irish,  joined  together  to  make  for  us  that  people 
of  the  Northern  England  which,  among  its  other 
merits,  has  kept  alive,  under  another  name,  the 
purest  form  of  the  EngHsh  tongue.  If  we  could  not 
spare  Scotland  in  our  island  world,  our  alter  orbis, 
still  less  could  we  spare  Switzerland  in  the  wider 
world  of  the  European  mainland.  A  fragment  of  the 
German,  the  Burgundian,  and  the  Italian  folk,  have 
come  together  to  show  us,  in  this  age  from  which  the 
power  of  Eome  has  vanished,  one  lively  image  of  the 
age  when  the  oecumenical  power  of  Rome  had  not  yet 
risen.  Athens,  like  Rome,  has  sunk  to  be  a  seat 
of  local  kingship ;  Achaia  still  lives,  if  not  on  her  own 
Mediterranean  shore,  yet  in  the  lands  which  repro- 


THE  SWISS  CONFEDERATION.  199 

duce  her  political  life.  She  lives  in  a  figure  in  the 
mountain  land,  the  home  of  all  that  is  oldest  and 
newest  in  Western  tradition  and  Western  thought. 
And  she  lives  too  in  a  figure  in  the  vaster  federal  and 
vaster  English  land  beyond  the  Ocean.  We  indeed 
feel  the  Unity  of  History  to  be  a  living  thing  when 
we  see  the  work  of  Markos  of  Keryneia  and  Aratos 
of  Sikyon  reproduced  on  two  such  widely  dijQferent 
scales  in  the  younger  hemisphere  and  in  the  elder. 

Thus  in  the  Latin-speaking  lands  and  on  the  cen- 
tral march  of  the  Teutonic  and  Latin-speaking  lands 
nations  have  grown  up  of  themselves,  they  have 
failed  to  grow  up,  or  they  have  been  formed  by  an 
artificial  union.  But  the  city,  as  an  independent 
political  unit,  has  vanished.  Even  in  Switzerland 
the  city  is  subordinate  to  the  artificial  nation ;  and 
we  can  hardly  say  that  any  Swiss  canton  is  now 
a  city  commonwealth  in  the  older  sense.  The  people 
of  the  surrounding  district,  once  commonly  a  subject 
district,  have  everywhere  won  for  themselves  equal 
rights  with  the  people  of  the  town.  If  Basehtadt 
is  a  purely  town-community,  it  is  because  Baselland 
has  won  for  itself,  not  only  equality  but  separation. 
In  other  lands  the  cities  are  simply  members  of  the 
kingdom  or  commonwealth,  though  we  have  seen 
that,  where  cities  once  were  great,  nations  have  found 
it  harder  to  grow  into  nations  than  elsewhere.  In 
other  parts  of  Europe,  Celtic,  Teutonic,  Slavonic, 
nations  have  grown  up  without  reference  to  cities  at 
all.  The  Teutonic  and  the  Slavonic  political  units 
are  both  something  very  unhke  a  city;  the  Celtic 


200  THE  WORLD  ROMELESS. 

political  unit  is  something  yet  more  unlike.  In 
none  of  these  parts  of  Europe  did  the  native  political 
developement  take  the  course  which  it  took  in  Greece 
or  Italy  or  even  in  Gaul,  and  the  Eoman  influence 
was  naturally  immeasureably  less  than  it  was  in 
Southern  Europe.  In  all  these  lands  the  city  is 
everywhere  a  direct  importation  from  the  South. 
It  may  be  a  real  Eoman  colony;  it  maybe  a  Teutonic 
or  Slavonic  community  shaping  itself  after  the 
pattern  of  a  Eoman  colony.  Nowhere  was  the  city 
a  thing  of  purely  native  growth,  nowhere  was  the 
independent  city  the  ruling  political  idea  around 
which  all  political  life  gathered.  In  one  land 
indeed,  in  the  central  land,  the  land  which  took 
specially  to  itself  the  Teutonic  name,  cities  did  indeed 
become  great  and  famous ;  but  they  became  great  and 
famous  only  under  the  conditions  which  I  have  just 
laid  down.  It  was  fitting  that  the  German  nation 
which  sheltered  its  own  Holy  Eoman  Empire  should 
conform  to  Eoman  traditions  more  nearly  than  Eng- 
land, Scandinavia,  or  the  Slavonic  lands.  Cities 
therefore  became  an  important  element  in  the  German 
kingdom.  The  oldest  Germans  looked  on  a  walled 
town  as  a  prison ;  yet  in  after  days  cities  and  city-life 
found  the  German  land  no  unkindly  soil.  The  Eoman 
cities  by  the  Ehine  lived  on,  and  became  models  for 
cities  of  more  purely  Teutonic  birth.  The  Colony  of 
Agrippina  had  its  capitol  no  less  than  the  Tolosa  of 
Quintus  Csepio,  and  it  seemed  only  in  the  nature  of 
things  that  patricians  should  gather  round  it.  Saxon 
kings,  Saxon  dukes,  made  younger  cities  arise  after 


THE  GERMAN  CITIES.  201 

their  model  in  the  heart  of  the  German  land  or  on 
the  shore  of  the  Northern  Mediterranean.  Nor  must 
we  forget  that  other  cities  at  which  we  have  glanced 
already — will  any  one  grasp  my  meaning  and  all  that 
it  suggests  if  I  speak  of  one  of  them  as  "  Verona  in 
montibusT' — were  simply  cities  of  the  German  realm, 
to  which  circumstances  gave  in  the  end  a  fuller  free- 
dom than  their  neighbours.  Zurich  herself,  "  nobile 
Torregium,"  "die  uralte,  lobliche,eidgenossischeStadt," 
reckons  among  her  titles  of  honour  that  the  judge- 
ment-seat of  Caesar  was  so  often  held  within  her  walls. 
In  course  of  time  that  special  home  of  Imperial  power 
passed  away,  together  with  her  fellows,  from  all  deal- 
ings with  Caesar  and  his  Empire.  Others  clave  to  their 
old  allegiance  till  a  new  Francia  reaching  to  the  Baltic 
and  the  Hadriatic  supplanted  the  ancient  realm  which 
was  at  once  Francia  and  Romania.  Those  free  cities 
of  the  Empire  which  lingered  on  till  our  own  century 
came,  like  the  cities  of  the  Alpine  land,  of  divers  forms 
of  growth.  Augsburg — Augusta  Vindelicorum — pro- 
claimed herself  to  all  time  as  of  Eoman  and  Imperial 
birth  ;  round  Niirnberg  none  but  Teutonic  memories 
can  gather.  And  by  the  Northern  and  the  Eastern  sea, 
by  the  banks  of  Weser,  Elbe,  and  Trave,  cities  arose 
which  were  called  to  a  still  higher  and  a  more  abiding 
destiny.  Merchants,  missionaries,  self-styled  crusaders, 
joined  their  efforts  to  plant  German  cities  on  the 
conquered  shores  of  the  Wend  and  of  the  older  folk 
beyond  him,  folk  beside  whom  modern  Europe  and 
her  nations  feel  as  intruders  on  foreign  soil.  The 
League  of  the  Saxon  Hansa,  a  power  for  which,  as 


202  THE  WORLD  ROMELESS. 

a  League,  we  can  hardly  find  a  geographical  place  on 
land,  became  mighty  indeed  and  memorable  upon  the 
seas.  London  and  Novgorod  formed  parts  of  one 
union  of  trade  and  enterprise ;  the  merchant  cities 
could  give  law  to  the  kingdoms  of  the  North  and 
could  place  whom  they  would  on  thrones  which  in 
Cnut's  day  had  looked  to  Winchester  and  which  were 
now  taught  to  look  to  Liibeck.  But  here  too,  as 
in  more  southern  lands,  the  greatness  of  cities  was 
not  abiding.  The  League  drooped ;  its  members 
fell  away ;  three  only  lived  through  the  last  storm 
to  claim  a  revived  freedom  in  the  first  new  birth 
of  Germany  seventy  years  back.  Three-and-twenty 
years  ago  I  saw  those  cities  still  sovereign  and  in- 
dependent ;  in  theory  more  sovereign  and  inde- 
pendent than  they  were  in  the  days  of  their  might. 
On  the  coins  of  Liibeck  was  still  graven,  if  not  the 
image,  yet  the  superscription  of  Caesar ;  the  Hanseatic 
city  seemed  to  have  put  forth  no  marks  or  shillings 
since  the  days  of  the  first  Francis  from  Lorraine.  But 
Caesar  lived  only  in  his  superscription  ;  Liibeck  knew 
no  lord  on  earth ;  she  was  bound  by  no  ties  save 
those  which  bound  her  to  her  two  Hanseatic  sisters 
and  to  the  lax  Confederation  which  still  numbered 
a  single  inland  city  among  its  members.  The  next 
year  after  my  visit  the  tale  of  free  cities  was  short- 
ened, the  freedom  of  those  that  still  lived  on  was 
shortened  also.  Frankfurt  has  sunk  from  the  rank  of 
a  commonwealth  to  become  a  city  of  a  local  kingdom ; 
Liibeck,  Bremen,  Hamburg,  are  still  commonwealths, 
but  commonwealths  which  are  again  members  of  an 


THE  HANSA.  203 

Empire.  They  are  survivals,  but  survivals  which 
modern  Europe,  Eomeless  Europe,  the  Europe  of  huge 
kingdoms  and  of  countless  armies — happy  when  king- 
doms mean  nations  and  when  armies  do  not  simply 
keep  down  unwilling  subjects — cannot  spare  from  the 
midst  of  her.  The  age  of  free  cities  is  past;  in  some 
lands  the  mere  high-handed  robbery  of  the  stranger 
has  wiped  them  out,  as  where  the  fetters  of  the 
meanest  of  oppressors  still  clank  over  enslaved 
Ragusa.  In  other  lands  the  loss  of  local  freedom 
has  perhaps  been  outweighed  by  admission  into  a 
wider  national  unity.  In  two  lands  again  the  com- 
monwealths still  abide,  tempered  only  by  the  obliga- 
tions of  a  federal  tie.  But  a  federal  tie  is  one  thing 
when  it  binds  together  a  group  of  lands  and  cities 
none  of  which  could  now  stand  alone ;  it  is  another 
thing  when  the  federation  has  an  Imperial  head,  when 
three  surviving  cities  are  grouped  with  duchies  and 
kingdoms  wdiich  could  at  any  moment  overwhelm 
them,  and  when  duchies  and  kingdoms  are  again 
grouped  in  fellowship  with  another  kingdom  greater 
than  cities,  duchies,  and  kingdoms  joined  in  one.  Yet 
to  this  day  the  free  city,  even  if  shorn  of  its  old 
greatness,  its  old  independence,  is  still  an  element  in 
our  modern  Europe.  Those  three  surviving  cities  of 
the  great  Hansa  are  precious  fragments  indeed,  frag- 
ments in  one  sense  of  a  world  when  the  Roman  power 
had  put  on  its  German  garb,  reminders  in  another 
sense  of  a  world  on  which  the  Roman  power  had  not 
yet  risen.  As  we  trust  never  to  see  the  day  when 
the  bull  of  Uri  and  the  bear  of  Bern  shall  cease  to  be 


204  THE  WORLD  ROMELESS. 

badges  of  a  freedom  more  than  municipal,  so  we 
trust  never  to  see  the  day  when  Imperial  Germany 
shall  cease,  among  the  ensigns  of  its  free  confederate 
members,  to  reckon  ensigns  more  worthy  of  honour 
than  the  banners  of  dukes  and  kings,  the  towers  of 
Hamburg,  the  key  of  Bremen,  and  the  eagle-shield  of 
Liibeck. 

I  have  done  my  desultory  picture  of  our  Eomeless 
world,  desultory  and  imperfect  as  must  be  every 
picture  attempted  in  lectures  such  as  these,  the  object 
of  which  is  not  the  communication  of  minute  know- 
ledge on  any  point.  I  am  still  at  the  threshold  of 
my  work.  Some  solid  work  I  think  I  have  done  in 
inner  chambers  with  the  small  and  faithful  band  who 
follow  me,  who  sometimes  guide  me,  through  book  after 
book  of  the  historian  of  the  Franks.  But  what  I  have 
as  yet  preached,  so  to  speak,  on  the  house-tops  has  been 
in  its  own  nature  general  and  desultory.  I  have  not, 
strictly  speaking,  been  teaching  ;  I  have  been  pur- 
posely talking  in  a  way  which  might  call  up  memories 
in  some  and  might  stir  up  to  inquiry  in  others.  But 
through  the  general  Ave  make  our  way  to  the  par- 
ticular. Next  term  I  trust  to  make  even  these  more 
public  lectures  of  a  more  solid  kind.  I  have  run 
with  a  swift  pace  through  a  general  view  of  the 
Methods  of  Historical  Study,  through  a  general  view 
of  the  chief  periods  of  European  history.  This  last 
series  fills  up  for  this  year  the  tale  of  forty-two 
lectures  which  the  iron  rule  of  our  masters  demands 
from  me.    With  such  necessity  laid  upon  me,  I  should 


CONCLUSION.  205 

think  it  savoured  of  arrogancy  and  impiety  if  I 
ventured  on  such  a  voluntary  work  of  supererogation 
as  a  forty-third  lecture.  What  the  Commissioners 
deem  enough  you  doubtless  deem  enough  ;  so  to-day  I 
bring  my  desultory  story  to  an  end.  In  October  I  hope 
to  begin  a  more  regular  course,  and  to  make  a  path, 
through  a  true  understanding  of  the  early  history  of 
Gaul,  to  a  true  understanding  of  the  early  history  of 
Britain.  And  I  have  one  word  more  to  say.  Since 
I  came  here  I  have  learned  several  things,  I  have 
learned  one  in  particular.  I  have  hitherto  always 
shrunk  from  crying  my  own  wares,  from  advertising 
my  own  writings.  Whenever  I  have  quoted  myself 
or  referred  to  myself,  it  has  been  with  a  feeling  of 
doing  something  that  one  should  be  ashamed  of.  But 
I  have  learned  in  this  place  where  I  now  stand,  from  a 
colleague  who  is  now  no  longer  a  colleague,  how  very 
silly  such  modesty  is,  and  how  much  better  it  is  to 
quote  oneself  and  talk  of  oneself  as  freely  as  one 
quotes  and  talks  about  anybody  else.  I  will  tell 
you  then  that  a  few  years  back  I  gave  two  courses 
of  lectures  on  the  other  side  of  the  Ocean  which, 
I  venture  to  think,  contain  matter  worth  reading.  I 
think  they  contain  matter  specially  worth  reading  by 
those  who  think  of  following  my  roundabout  course 
in  company,  first  with  the  Yandal  who  crosses  the 
Ehine  and  afterwards  with  the  Saxon  who  crosses 
the  sea.  They  were  printed  in  America ;  some  copies 
have,  I  know,  found  their  way  into  Britain.  I  must 
put  a  bold  face  on  the  matter,  and  say  that  those 
who  have  followed  me  thus  far  and  who  purpose  to 


206  THE  WORLD  ROMELESS. 

follow  me  again  in  October  might  spend  their  Long 
"Vacation  worse  than  in  giving  some  part  of  it  to 
reading  my  two  courses  of  Lectures  to  American 
audiences,  bound  up  in  one  not  very  big  volume. 
You  will  find  in  them  some  things  that  I  have  said 
elsewhere,  and,  though  some  seem  to  think  that  im- 
possible, some  things  that  I  have  not  said  elsewhere. 
And  so  I  bid  you  farewell  for  a  few  months,  finding 
fault  with  you  in  nothing,  except  that,  like  most 
other  Professors,  I  wish  there  were  more  of  you.  But 
one  therefore  feels  all  the  more  kindly  to  the  elect, 
the  faithful,  the  little  band  that  watched  with  Alfred, 
the  stout  hearts  that  lapped  with  Gideon,  even  though 
they  be  far  from  reaching  the  full  tale  of  three 
hundred.  And  so  I  will  end  the  work  of  my  first 
academic  year,  with  a  wish  to  see  you  all  and  more 
also  on  the  same  benches  in  October;  I  part  from 
you  with  the  blessing  of  the  modern  Greek,  ei?  KoKhv 

aPTafKaaiv. 


GEEEK  CITIES  UNDER  EOMAN  EULE. 


GREEK  CITIES  UNDER  ROMAN  RULE. 

I  HAVE  in  various  forms  tried  to  point  out  tlie 
special  importance  which,  in  the  history  of  the 
world,  belongs  to  the  period  which  saw  the  establish- 
ment of  the  dominion  of  the  Roman  People  over  the 
civilized  world  of  its  time,  especially  over  the  He^ 
lenic  and  hellenized  lands  round  the  eastern  Mediter- 
ranean. It  is  of  the  first  importance  for  the  right 
understanding  of  general  history  to  take  in  the  real 
character  of  the  state  of  things  which  was  brought 
about  by  this  gradual  establishment  of  the  Roman 
dominion.  It  is  curious  to  see  how  constantly  that 
state  of  things  is  misunderstood,  from  looking  at 
the  matter  with  modern  eyes.  And  it  is  the  more 
curious  when  we  come  to  think  how  very  modern 
the  eyes  must  be  which  are  unable  to  see  the  matter 
correctly.  For  we  have  hardly  to  go  out  of  our  own 
century  to  find  lively  images  of  the  state  of  things 
which  Roman  conquest  brought  about.  Yet  we  are 
constantly  tempted  to  fancy  that  the  rule  of  the 
early  Roman  Emperors,  perhaps  that  of  the  Roman 
Commonwealth  before  them,  was  a  centralized  ad- 
ministration, in  which  all  authority  issued  from  a 
central  power.     We  are  used  to  the  great  kingdoms 

p 


210         GREEK  CITIES  UNDER  ROMAN  RULE. 

and  commonwealths  of  modem  Europe,  in  which 
local  bodies  may  enjoy  a  greater  or  less  degree  of 
local  independence,  but  in  which  they  hold  that 
independence  in  inherent  subordination  to  the  central 
authority,  by  virtue  of  laws  passed  by  the  central 
legislature.  The  land  is  divided  into  counties,  de- 
partments, provinces,  administered  according  to  such 
rules  as  the  central  legislature  may  think  good  to 
lay  down.  It  is  true  that  in  our  own  country  the 
shire  is,  both  in  idea  and  in  part  of  the  land  in 
historical  fact,  older  than  the  kingdom.  But  in  a 
large  part  of  England  the  shire  is  as  truly  a  division 
of  the  kingdom  as  a  French  department,  and  where 
it  is  not  so  historically  it  has  become  so  practically. 
An  English  shire,  an  English  borough,  has  no  rights 
or  powers  but  such  as  it  has  derived,  in  some  shape 
or  another,  from  the  central  power  of  the  land,  by 
act  of  Parliament  or  by  royal  charter.  That  central 
power  has  the  same  rights  and  powers  in  every 
comer  of  the  kingdom.  I  speak  of  course  only  of 
the  United  Kingdom  ;  as  soon  as  we  get  beyond  its 
limits,  as  soon  as  we  enter  the  Scandinavian  king- 
dom and  the  Norman  duchy  which  lie  so  near  to  it 
but  which  form  no  part  of  it,  so  soon  we  still  find 
ourselves  in  a  state  of  things  which  has  much  in 
common  with  the  Roman  dominion.  And  if  all  this 
is  true  of  the  United  Kingdom,  it  is  yet  more 
true  of  states  like  France  and  Italy,  whose  geo- 
graphical divisions  and  administrative  system  have 
been  drawn  up  as  something  wholly  new  in  quite 
modem  times.     Yet  down  at  least  to  the  end  of  the 


SHIRES  AND  CITIES.  211 

last  century,  in  many  parts  of  Germany,  of  Italy,  of 
Switzerland,  of  all  the  lands  to  which  the  power  of 
Venice  reached,  the  endless  varieties  of  alliance  and 
subjection  between  different  towns  and  lands  pre- 
sented the  closest  analogies  to  the  relations  of  which 
I  have  now  to  speak.  Survivals  went  on  even  to 
our  own  time.  In  1865  a  small  district  wais  still 
held  in  condominium  by  the  two  free  cities  of 
Llibeck  and  Hamburg.  I  passed  through  it  with  a 
feeling  as  if  I  had  been  carried  back  into  some 
distant  age.  I  presume  that  since  1866  things  are 
different  there. 

It  is  of  course  perfectly  true  that,  at  a  later  age  of 
the  Eoman  dominion,  when  the  Empire  began  to 
change  into  an  acknowledged  monarchy — though 
monarchy  is  not  the  proper  word  for  a  power  which 
was  often  held  by  two  or  more  colleagues — that 
Empire  did  come  much  nearer  to  the  character  of  a 
modern  centralized  state.  It  was  mapped  out  into 
administrative  divisions,  and  those  divisions  were 
administered  according  to  a  general  law.  But  the 
dominion  of  Eome,  Commonwealth  and  Empire,  had 
been  in  being  for  several  ages  before  this  change 
took  place.  The  elder  Roman  rule  was  not  the  rule, 
despotic  or  constitutional,  of  a  man  over  an  united 
territory ;  it  was  the  rule  of  a  city  over  other  cities 
and  lands,  cities  and  lands  standing  to  the  ruling 
city  in  every  possible  relation,  from  nominally  equal 
alliance  to  a  subjection  hardly  better  than  bondage. 
That  so  it  should  be  was  the  natural  result  of  the 
way  in   which   the   Eoman   dominion   was   formed. 

p  2 


212         GREEK  CITIES  UNDER  ROMAN  RULE. 

With  the  political  ideas  of  the  third  and  second 
centuries  before  Christ  no  other  state  of  things  was 
possible.  The  way  in  which  the  dominion  of  Eome 
was  formed,  the  process  by  which  the  cities  and 
lands  of  so  large  a  part  of  the  world  passed  under 
the  supremacy  of  one  ruling  city,  has  much  in 
common  with  the  further  process  which  the  growth 
of  that  dominion  made  inevitable,  the  submission  of 
Rome  herself  to  the  dominion  of  one  or  more  of  her 
own  citizens.  In  both  cases  the  change  was  gradual. 
People  often  talk  of  the  change  from  the  Eepublic 
to  the  Empire,  very  much  as  they  talk  of  the 
English  Eeformation,  as  if  it  were  a  definite  act 
which  took  place  in  some  particular  year.  Yet  all 
that  was  characteristic  in  the  Imperial  power  arose 
out  of  its  gradual  growth,  its  growth  through  an 
union  of  magistracies  and  extraordinary  commissions 
which  virtually  bestowed  supreme  authority  on  their 
holder.  Above  aU,  out  of  the  original  character  of 
the  Empire  as  an  extraordinary  commission  granted 
by  a  vote  of  the  Senate  came  the  fact  that  the 
Empire  remained  for  ages  without  any  law  of  suc- 
cession. A  law  prescribing  a  mode  of  election  and  a 
law  prescribing  a  rule  of  hereditary  succession  both 
assume  an  ordinary  office  which  must  be  filled  by 
some  one  ;  the  Empire  was  in  its  origin  an  extra- 
ordinary office  which  might  not  be  filled  at  all.  A 
vote,  or  several  votes,  of  the  Senate  entrusted  a 
single  citizen — or  more  than  one  citizen — with 
powers  which  practically  amounted  to  sovereignty, 
and   which   in    the   end    grew    into   acknowledged 


NATURE  OF  THE  IMPERIAL  POWER.  213 

sovereignty.  But  tbat  growth  was  slow.  For  a 
long  time  after  the  Empire  began,  the  republican 
constitution,  the  republican  magistracies,  the  re- 
publican assemblies,  still  lived  on  untouched  in  their 
outward  framew^ork.  They  had  simply  lost  all  living 
energy  through  the  growth  of  a  power  greater 
than  all,  a  power  wdiich  sometimes  directed  their 
course  of  action,  sometimes  itself  acted  in  their 
stead.  If  we  could  conceive,  as  once  or  twice  did 
happen  for  a  short  time,  the  controlling  power  re- 
moved, that  is,  if  the  extraordinary  commissions 
which  made  up  the  Imperial  power  were  not  granted 
to  any  one,  the  old  elements  of  the  commonwealth 
were  there,  able  again  to  act  for  themselves  as  of 
old.  The  Senate,  after  ages  of  utter  nullity,  actually 
did  act  again  as  an  independent  body  when  the  Goth 
was  at  the  gates  of  Rome  and  the  Emperor  was  far 
away  at  Ravenna.  For  Rome  once  more  to  act 
without  her  master  there  was  no  need  to  create  any 
new  power,  but  simply  to  take  the  fetters  off  an  old 
one.  In  the  earlier  ages  of  the  Empire,  when  the 
old  traditions  were  more  lively,  w^hen  the  forms  of 
the  old  constitution  w^ere  still  observed,  such  a 
change  would  doubtless  have  been  far  more  easy. 
A  modern  kingdom  cannot  be  changed  into  a  re- 
public without  an  active  change  in  its  constitution. 
The  executive  authority  must  be  vested  in  some 
new  power  to  be  created  and  defined  for  the  purpose. 
The  Roman  Empire  might  have  been  turned  back 
into  a  republic  by  a  purely  negative  change.  All 
that  was  needed  was  not  to  appoint  an  Emperor. 


214  GREEK  CITIES  UNDER  ROMAN  RULE. 

The  various  powers  of  the  State  which  had  left  off 
acting  or  had  come  to  act  only  as  the  Emperor  bade 
them,  would  doubtless,  from  lack  of  practice,  from 
change  in  all  surrounding  circumstances,  have  found 
it  practically  impossible  to  act  as  they  had  done  in 
the  days  of  the  old  commonwealth.  But  there 
would  have  been  no  formal  hindrance  to  their  so 
doing ;  there  would  have  been  no  need  to  clothe 
Senate  or  magistrates  with  any  powers  beyond  those 
which  they  still  held,  though  in  a  dormant  state. 

The  power  of  Kome  over  her  allies  and  dependencies 
during  the  Commonwealth  and  the  early  Empire  was 
very  much  of  the  same  kind  as  the  power  of  the 
Emperors  over  Kome  herself.  It  was  something  which 
overshadowed  a  crowd  of  old  powers  and  liberties, 
which  brought  them  down  to  practical  nullity,  but 
which  in  no  way  formally  abolished  them.  The  re- 
publican institutions  of  Eome  under  the  early  Empire, 
the  constitutions  of  the  allied  states,  of  the  depend- 
encies, even  of  the  direct  subjects  of  Eome,  under  both 
the  early  Empire  and  the  Commonwealth,  were  much 
in  the  same  state  as  a  man  or  a  beast  that  is  fettered 
or  bridled.  His  inherent  physical  powers  of  action 
are  not  lessened ;  only  they  cannot  be  exercised,  or 
can  be  exercised  only  according  to  the  will  of  a 
master.  So  it  was  with  Kome  herself  under  the 
Emperors  ;  so  it  was  yet  more  strikingly  with  the 
dependencies  of  Kome  under  Kome  republican  or 
imperial.  As  Kome  herself  submitted  only  gra- 
dually to  the  rule  of  her  Emperors,  so  the  depen- 
dencies of  Kome    submitted   only  gradually  to   the 


THE  ALLIES  OF  ROME.  215 

rule  of  Rome.  There  could  hardly  have  been  one 
Roman  province  in  which,  as  in  an  English  county 
or  a  French  department,  every  inch  of  soil  stood 
in  the  same  relation  to  the  central  power.  Within 
the  geographical  bounds  of  most  provinces,  above 
all  within  the  bounds  of  the  Greek  and  hellenized 
provinces,  there  were  cities  and  districts  standing 
to  Rome  in  all  those  endless  relations  which  were  the 
natural  result  of  the  different  times  and  the  different 
circumstances  under  which  their  connexion  with 
Rome  began.  Here  was  a  free  and  equal  ally  of 
Rome,  a  city  which  Rome  had  been  glad  to  receive  as 
a  free  and  equal  ally  at  a  time  when  her  alliance  was 
really  valuable.  Nothing  had  happened  to  give  any 
excuse  for  dragging  down  the  old  ally  to  any  inferior 
position.  In  theory  she  was  still  as  free  as  ever, 
keeping  every  power  of  a  sovereign  state  within  and 
without.  No  Roman  magistrate  had  any  authority 
within  her  territory;  if  she  sent  offerings  to  Rome  or 
to  Rome's  master,  if  she  supplied  a  contingent  to  a 
Roman  army,  all  was  the  gift  of  pure  friendship  from 
one  equal  ally  to  another.  A  neighbouring  town 
might  be  in  the  strictly  provincial  relation  ;  over  her 
soil  the  Roman  people  had  become,  not  only  sovereign, 
but  landlord  ;  she  might  keep  her  old  municipal  con- 
stitution, but  it  was  purely  by  the  grant  or  sufferance 
of  the  ruling  city.  Such  a  city  yielded  obedience  to 
Rome,  because  Rome  was  an  acknowledged  mistress ; 
if  its  free  neighbour  practically  yielded  obedience  to 
Rome  no  less,  it  was  simply  because,  in  an  alliance 
between  the  weak  and  the  strong,  the  strong  will 


216  GREEK  CITIES  UNDER  ROMAN  RULE. 

always  give  law  to  the  weak.  And  between  these' 
two  extremes  there  were  endless  intermediate  shades. 
Besides  the  absolutely  independent  ally,  there  were 
allies  who  also  had  treaties  w^ith  Eome,  but  whose 
treaties  were  less  favourable,  treaties  which  bound 
both  sides  alike,  but  which  formally  placed  one  of 
the  contracting  parties  in  a  higher  and  the  other 
in  a  lower  position.  Again,  there  were  towns  of  the 
province  itself  on  which  Kome  had  bestowed,  not  by 
treaty  but  by  her  own  grant,  higher  rights  than  the 
rest  of  the  province.  One  city  was  free,  keeping  its 
own  law,  exempt  from  the  ordinary  jurisdiction  of 
the  Eoman  governor,  paying  no  tax  or  tribute  to 
Eome,  but  holding  all  these  privileges  by  grant  from 
the  Eoman  state.  Another  was  equally  free  within 
its  own  walls,  but  bought  its  privileges  by  the  pay- 
ment of  tribute  to  Eome.  And  as  there  were  within 
every  Greek-speaking  province  spots  which  remained 
spots  of  free  Hellas  abiding  in  their  old  freedom,  so 
there  might  be  other  spots  which  were  transplanted 
fragments  of  the  soil  of  Latium  or  of  Eome  itself, 
keeping  in  the  foreign  land  the  rights  of  Latium  or 
of  Eome.  That  is,  there  might  be  within  the  bounds 
of  the  province  Latin  or  Eoman  colonies,  or  towns  to 
which,  without  being  in  their  origin  Latin  or  Eoman 
colonies,  Eome  had  thought  good  to  grant,  sometimes 
her  own  full  citizenship,  sometimes  only  the  half-citi- 
zenship of  Latium.  Of  these,  the  free  and  allied  city, 
the  Eoman  and  the  Latin  colony,  were  geographically 
within  the  province,  but  they  were  not  legally  part 
of  it.     To  the  Eoman  and  the  Latin  colony  we  have 


MODERN  ANALOGIES.  217 

nothing  exactly  answering  in  modern  Europe  ;  but 
Andorra  and  San  Marino  are  still  lively  illustrations 
of  the  position  of  a  small  state  which  has  powerful 
neighbours.  San  Marino,  a  perfectly  indejjendent 
state,  but  which,  as  wholly  surrounded  by  its  great 
neighbour,  is  practically  cut  off  from  exercising  any 
of  the  external  powers  of  an  independent  state,  is  in 
exactly  the  position  of  a  free  and  equal  ally  of  Kome. 
Such  an  ally  might  keep  perfect  internal  freedom, 
but  it  was  in  the  nature  of  thinsrs  cut  off  from  anv 
foreign  policy.  Andorra,  a  dependent  and  tributary 
state,  though  keeping  full  internal  freedom,  would,  if 
it  had  only  one  protecting  lord,  also  have  its  parallels 
among  the  dependent  allies  of  Eome.  But,  in  the 
complication  of  mediaeval  relations,  Andorra  has  two 
protecting  lords,  two  receivers  of  tribute.  That  was 
a  state  of  things  which  could  not  be  in  the  days  of 
the  Roman  Peace. 

There  is  only  one  San  Marino  within  the  geogra- 
phical bounds  of  Italy,  and  San  Marino  is  not  one  of 
the  great  cities  of  Italy.  It  is  therefore  a  harmless 
political  curiosity,  with  whose  rights  the  Italian 
kingdom  has  no  temptation  to  meddle.  It  might 
be  otherwise  if  the  kingdom  had  many  such  inde- 
pendent towns  and  districts  within  its  borders,  and  if 
any  of  the  great  cities  of  Italy  were  reckoned  among 
them.  Now  one  of  the  ugliest  features  of  Roman 
history,  one  which  comes  out  in  every  page  of  the 
history  of  the  second  century  B.C.,  is  the  ungenerous 
way  in  which  Rome  treated  her  independent  allies 
the  moment  they  ceased  to  be  useful  to  her.     As 


218  GREEK  CITIES  UNDER  ROMAN  RULE. 

long  as  they  served  as  checks  on  some  other  power, 
so  long  they  were  made  not  a  little  of ;  as  soon  as 
the  dangerous  power  was  overthrown  or  humbled, 
the  ally  which  had  helped  to  overthrow  it  become 
an  object  of  Eoman  jealousy.  The  friendly  power 
whose  day  of  usefulness  was  over  w^as  exposed  to 
endless  attempts  on  the  part  of  Rome  to  weaken  and 
break  it  in  pieces.  Such  is  the  tale  of  the  kingdom 
ot  Pergaraon,  of  the  city-commonwealth  of  Ehodes, 
of  the  confederation  of  Achaia.  No  part  of  Roman 
history  is  more  disgraceful  than  the  dealings  of  Rome 
with  those  three  states,  the  model  governments  of 
their  several  classes.  No  learning,  no  eloquence,  can 
avail  to  whitewash  the  faithless  and  brutal  dealings 
ot  the  Roman  Senate  towards  powers  whose  only 
fault  was  to  be  weaker  than  Rome  and  to  have  done 
good  service  to  Rome.  This  feeling  of  jealousy  to- 
wards the  allies  lingered  on  long  after  all  ground  for 
jealousy  had  passed  away,  when  the  free  city  was  free 
only  within  its  own  walls,  and  could  not  lift  hand  or 
foot  against  the  mighty  ally  by  whose  dominion  it 
was  hemmed  in.  But  the  wrongs  of  these  cities 
under  Roman  rule  were  far  more  largely  due  to  more 
immediate  causes,  to  the  overbearing  love  of  power, 
to  the  baser  love  of  gain,  which  formed  the  dark  side 
of  the  Roman  character.  The  liberties  of  these  weak 
states  were  often  encroached  on,  not  only  by  the  Roman 
state  itself,  but  by  particular  Roman  magistrates,  and 
even  by  powerful  men  who  were  not  at  the  moment 
magistrates.  The  establishment  of  the  Empire  un- 
doubtedly did  something  to  check  the  oppressions  of 


ROME'S  TREATMENT  OF  HER  ALLIES.        219 

the  Eoman  governors,  on  whom  there  was  very  little 
check  under  the  commonwealth.  But  if  the  Empire 
led  to  less  oppression  on  the  part  of  the  representa- 
tives of  the  central  power,  it  led  to  more  meddling 
on  the  part  of  the  central  power  itself.  A  man  placed 
at  the  head  of  the  world  stands  in  a  different  position 
from  a  city  placed  at  the  head  of  the  world.  To  the 
ruling  city  the  dependent  states  are  simply  dependent 
states ;  it  gets  what  it  can  out  of  them,  but  it  has  no 
temptation  to  meddle  for  the  sake  of  meddling.  The 
ruling  man  has  temptations  to  meddle,  and  it  may 
even  be  that,  the  better  disposed  he  is,  his  tempta- 
tions to  meddle  become  greater.  The  natural  ten- 
dency of  the  Empire  was  to  unity  and  centraliza- 
tion everywhere  and  in  every  way.  Under  imperial 
rule,  the  endless  variety  of  relations  among  the 
allies,  dependents,  and  subjects  of  Kome  gradually 
changed  into  the  one  character  of  direct  members 
of  the  Eoman  Empire.  But  the  change  was  slow. 
Sovereign  commonwealths  sank  into  municipalities, 
and  municipalities  sank  into  something  less  than 
municipalities,  by  mere  force  of  circumstances,  with- 
out any  formal  act.  It  is  often  very  hard  to  say 
when  this  or  that  free  city  finally  lost  its  distinct 
being  through  absolute  incorporation  in  the  Roman 
Empire.  It  is  certain  that  the  memory  of  past  free- 
dom, as  something  that  still  was  not  wholly  past,  lived 
on  for  ages.  Under  the  early  Empire  the  com- 
monwealths of  Greece  and  Asia,  whatever  w^as  their 
formal  relation,  were  in  practice,  not  only  subject  to 
the  Roman  Empire,  but  very  much  at  the  mercy  of 


220  GREEK  CITIES  UNDER  ROMAN  RULE. 

the  governors  of  the  provinces  within  which  they 
geographically  lay.  But  they  still  were  common- 
wealths, though  dependent  or  even  subject  common- 
wealths. Their  senates,  assemblies,  or  other  ruling 
bodies,  had  practically  sunk  to  the  functions  of  town- 
councils,  and  they  were  open,  in  a  way  in  which  an 
English  town-council  is  not,  to  the  caprice  of  an  ex- 
ternal power.  But  they  were  town-councils  which 
had  been  sovereign  parliaments.  Some  of  them  were 
in  theory  sovereign  parliaments  still.  Aud  even  those 
which  were  furthest  from  that  character,  the  councils 
of  those  towns  which  were  neither  free  and  allied 
states,  nor  Eoman  colonies,  nor  in  any  way  privileged 
above  the  general  provincial  relation,  had  not  wholly 
lost  their  original  character.  Deep  into  the  time  of 
the  Empire,  the  old  character  of  the  Koman  dominion, 
that  of  a  city  ruling  over  other  cities,  still  left  its 
traces.  In  such  a  state  of  things  the  authority  of 
the  councils  or  assemblies  of  the  subject  states  might 
practically  be  smaller  than  that  of  the  town-council 
of  an  English  borough.  That  is,  the  assembly  might 
be  afraid  of  acting  in  any  matter  of  importance  with- 
out the  leave  of  the  central  power  or  its  representa- 
tive. It  might  practically  confine  its  action  to  matters 
of  routine  and  ceremony,  at  most  to  votes  of  honours 
and  setting  up  of  statues,  because  any  bolder  action 
would  awaken  Eoman  jealousy.  That  is  to  say,  the 
free  and  allied  state  could  in  theory  do  everything, 
even  the  provincial  town  could  in  theory  do  many 
things,  according  to  its  own  free  will.  But  genera- 
tions of  submission  to  an  irresistible  neighbour  had 


COATEAST  WITH  MODERN  TOWNS.  221 

taught  it  not  to  exercise  that  free  will  except  ac- 
cording to  the  higher  will  of  the  power  which  was 
supreme  over  all.  If  the  rights  of  the  subordinate 
state  became  formal  or  even  null,  it  was  because  they 
were  wide  and  indefinite;  they  were  the  powers  of  a 
community  which  still  kept  a  distinct  being,  but 
which  was  placed  under  the  irresistible  influence, 
sometimes  under  the  direct  dominion,  of  a  stronger 
community.  This  is  a  position  altogether  different 
from  that  of  a  town  or  district  in  a  modern  kingdom 
or  commonwealth  where  every  part  of  the  land  has 
equal  rights.  In  such  a  kingdom  or  commonwealth, 
whatever  2)owers,  great  or  small,  this  or  that  board 
or  council  has,  are  held  according  to  the  law  of  the 
land.  As  long  as  those  powers  are  exercised  accord- 
ing to  the  law  of  the  land,  no  administrative  inter- 
ference is  to  be  feared ;  if  the  law  is  broken,  if  the 
local  authority  steps  beyond  its  legal  powers,  the 
wrong  will  be  made  good,  not  by  an  arbitrary  will, 
but  by  a  legal  process.  It  was  wholly  different  with 
the  cities  of  which  we  speak,  whether  free,  dependent, 
or  subject ;  they  were  still  separate  commonwealths 
with  inherent  rights,  even  if  those  rights  could  no 
longer  be  exercised ;  their  assemblies  had  once  been 
parliaments,  and  to  both  the  forms  and  the  feelings 
of  parliaments  they  still  clave.  And  one  city  at  least 
among  the  allies  of  Kome  kept  its  substantial  freedom 
down  to  an  age  when  many  fancy  that  the  Roman 
power  itself  had  altogether  vanished  from  the  earth. 
The  freedom  of  Cherson  was  overthrown,  not  by 
Mummius  in  the  second  century  on  one  side,  not 


222  GREEK  CITIES  UNDER  ROMAN  RULE. 

by  Vespasian  in  the  first  century  on  the  other,  but 
by  the  Amorian  Theophilos  in  the  ninth.  Till  that 
dav  the  last  of  the  Greek  commonwealths  lived  on 
its  ancient  life,  and  for  the  simplest  of  reasons.  Not 
only  the  Emperor  himself,  but  the  proconsul  of 
Achaia,  of  Macedonia,  or  of  Asia,  could  at  any  mo- 
ment encroach  on,  the  Emperor  could  at  any  moment 
destroy,  the  freedom  of  any  Greek  city  that  lay  geo- 
graphically within  those  provinces.  He  had  always 
the  physical  power  to  encroach  or  to  destroy;  not 
uncommonly  he  had  the  will.  But  the  commonwealth 
which  lay  far  away  in  the  Tauric  Chersonesos  stood 
in  another  case.  The  faithful  ally  could  not  be 
changed  into  the  helpless  subject,  except  by  the 
same  kind  of  effort  which  was  needed  for  a  Gothic 
or  a  Persian  war. 

The  long  abiding  independence  of  Cherson  is  a  fact 
to  which  I  have  often  had  occasion  to  call  attention 
from  other  points  of  view.  So  is  the  independence 
of  the  Lykian  League,  though  the  less  favourable 
geographical  position  of  that  power  allowed  its  free- 
dom to  come  to  an  end  eight  hundred  years  sooner 
than  the  freedom  of  Cherson.  I  have  elsewhere 
spoken  of  that  League  as  perhaps  the  most  skilfully 
planned  example  of  a  federal  constitution  that  the 
elder  day  could  show ;  ^  it  concerns  me  now  as  an 
example  of  the  degree  of  independence  which  a  con- 
siderable territory  could  keep  under  the  general 
supremacy  of  Eome,  from  the  fall  of  Perseus  to  the 
reign  of  Claudius.  For  the  story  of  its  origin  we 
*  History  of  Federal  Government,  i.  208. 


CHERSON  AND  LYKIA.  223 

have  to  go  to  the  narrative,  unhappily  fragmentary, 
which  Polybios  gives  of  the  events  which  led  to  the 
deHverance  of  Lykia  from  Ehodian  rule  ;  ^  for  a  full 
account  of  its  constitution  we  have  only  to  turn  to 
the  description  of  Strabo.^  It  is  specially  instrucive 
when  the  geographer  tells  us  that  the  League  still  kept 
the  right  of  war  and  peace,  though,  he  adds,  in  his 
day  that  right  could  not  be  exercised  at  all,  or  could 
be  exercised  only  as  Kome  thought  fit.^  After  read- 
ing this,  it  is  certainly  curious  to  read  the  comment 
of  a  recent  scholar  who  thinks  that  the  powers  of  the 
League  and  the  measure  of  its  independence  were 
something  like  those  of  the  city  of  London.'*  A 
nearer  analogy  might  surely  be  found  in  the  relations 
in  which  many  of  the  smaller  powers  of  Europe  stood 
not  very  long  back  ;    it  is  not  very  unlike  that  in 

^  Polybios,  XXX.  519  ;  xxxi.  7,  16,  17. 

^  Strabo,  xiv.  3,  vol.  iii.  p.  219,  Tauchnltz. 

'  Kal  Trepi  noXtfiov  Be  Kai  (lpf]in]s  kol  o-v/x/xa;^i'ay  f^ov\(vouTo  nportpov, 
vvv  8  oiiK  (Ikos,  aXX'  e/rl  rois  'Pcofiaion  ravr  avdyio)  KflcrOai,  nXfj'^  d 
eKe'ivav  iiriTpf^avrav  fj  xmkp  auTwv  ("it)  xPW^H-ov.      That   is  to   say,  the 

right  had  never  been  formally  taken  away;  only  it  practically 
could  not  be  exercised. 

*  In  writing  this  article  I  Lave  had  several  times  in  my  thoughts 
a  controversy  on  "  Home  Eule  under  the  Roman  Empire,"  which 
will  be  found  in  two  numbers  of  Macmillans  Magazine  for 
November  1882  and  March  1883.  This  controversy  is  instructive  in 
many  ways,  specially  as  showing  how  utterly,  and  how  contentedly, 
large  parts  of  Eoman  history  and  Roman  literature  may  be  passed 
by,  even  by  a  scholar  who  enjoys  a  high  repute  in  other  branches 
of  those  subjects.  The  comparison  between  the  Lykian  League  and 
the  city  of  London  comes  from  the  second  of  the  two  articles.  Its 
author  could  hardly  have  read  the  description  of  the  League  in 
Strabo. 


224  GREEK  CITIES  UNDER  ROMAN  RULE. 

which  some  of  them  stand  at  this  moment.  The 
position  of  Lykia  towards  Eome  is  very  like  that  in 
which  various  Italian  and  German  states  stood  to- 
wards Austria  forty  years  back.  It  is  very  like  that 
in  which  Servia  at  this  moment  stands  to  Austria  and 
Montenegro  to  Eussia.  It  is  in  short  tlie  position 
of  a  "  protected "  state,  whether  the  protection  be 
avowed  or  only  practical.  But  there  is  this  im- 
portant difference.  A  protected  state  now  has  at  least 
some  voice  in  choosing  its  protector ;  it  can  exercise 
the  old  Teutonic  right  of  seeking^  a  lord.  And  a  small 
state  may  even  keep  perfect  independence  without 
any  protector  at  all,  simply  through  the  jealousies  of 
the  greater  powers.  A  small  state  may  sometimes  live 
on  in  perfect  freedom  surrounded  by  powers  stronger 
than  itself.  Any  one  of  them  could  at  any  moment 
put  an  end  to  its  freedom  ;  but  none  of  them  is  likely 
to  make  the  attempt,  because  the  others,  for  their 
own  ends,  will  not  allow  it.  But  Home  stood  alone 
in  the  world;  there  was  no  choice  of  protectors; 
whatever  independence  was  left  was  held  only  by 
Roman  sufferance.  Whenever  it  suited  Roman  policy 
or  caprice  to  extinguish  the  independence  of  any 
state,  the  thing  was  done. 

The  Lykian  League,  as  embracing  a  considerable 
territory,  has,  from  its  geographical  side,  more  in 
common  with  the  kingdoms  and  principalities  which 
lived  on  under  Roman  vassalage,  than  with  the  single 
city-commonwealths  which  supply  the  examples  which 
most  naturally  occur  to  us.  It  must  have  been  be- 
yond the  power  of  any  single  proconsul  in  a  peaceful 


PROTECTED  STATES.  225 

time  seriously  to  interfere  with  the  liberties  of  Lykia. 
It  is  true  that  the  federal  states  of  Greece  still  lived 
on  for  Pausanias  to  see  them  at  work;  and  two 
generations  earlier  the  sacred  convocation  of  the 
Amphiktyons  had  drawn  a  new  life  from  the  measure 
of  redistribution  ordained  by  the  Emperor  Augustus.^ 
But  we  may  be  sure  that  no  confederation  of  old 
Greece  kept  anything  like  such  a  measure  of  poHtical 
life  as  that  which  Strabo  saw  at  work  in  Lykia.  What 
little  life  there  still  was  in  the  Greek  world  abode  in 
the  single  cities,  and  there  was  doubtless  more  life 
among  the  Greek  cities  of  Asia  than  in  those  of  old 
Greece.  Of  Lykia  in  Strabo's  day  we  have  only 
Strabo's  general  description ;  we  have  no  detailed 
illustrations  of  the  working  of  the  political  system ; 
least  of  all  have  we  any  speeches,  any  letters,  any 
political  treatises,  either  from  Lykian  orators  or  philo- 
sophers or  from  Koman  magistrates  who  had  dealings 
with  the  Lykian  League  or  its  cities.  Let  us  leap  on 
to  the  age  of  Trajan,  and  we  shall  find  that  that  age 
is  rich  in  materials  for  the  political  life  of  the  Achaian 
and  Bithynian  provinces  and  of  the  free  cities  which 
lay  within  their  geographical  boundaries.  We  have 
four  highly  instructive  contemporary  writers,  two 
Greek  and  two  Latin,  one  of  the  latter  being  the  re- 
nowned Emperor  himself.  We  have  from  Plutarch 
a  treatise  on  the  duties  of  a  Greek  statesman  of 
his  day.  We  have  from  Di6n  Chrysostom  several 
speeches  actually  dehvered  in  the  assemblies  of  Greek 
cities  in  the  reign  of  Trajan.  We  have  the  corre- 
^  See  History  of  Federal  Government,  i.  136. 


226  GREEK  CITIES  UNDER  ROMAN  RULE. 

spondence  of  Trajan  himself  with  the  younger  Pliny 
when  Pliny  was  proconsul  of  Bithynia.  We  thus 
get  two  sides  of  the  picture.  We  see  how  things 
looked  in  the  eyes  of  two  literary  Greeks,  one  of 
whom  to  he  sure  w^as  bound  to  make  the  best  of 
things  and  to  make  his  rhetoric  as  acceptable  as  he 
could  to  his  Greek  hearers.  We  see  also  how  things 
looked  in  the  eyes  of  two  official  Komans,  an  Emperor 
and  a  proconsul  who  were  among  the  best  of  their 
several  classes,  but  whose  very  virtues  laid  them  open 
to  one  special  temptation.  Both  Trajan  and  Pliny 
loathed  oppression  and  wrong  of  every  kind,  and  they 
sincerely  sought  the  welfare  of  all  for  whose  welfare 
they  were  responsible.  But  for  that  very  reason  they 
were  more  likely  to  be  led  to  constant  meddling  with 
the  affairs  of  their  subjects  than  rulers  who  might 
now  and  then  be  guilty  of  some  gross  piece  of  tyranny, 
but  who  for  the  most  part  left  people  alone  in  the 
time  between  one  act  of  oppression  and  another.  The 
colouring  on  the  Greek  and  on  the  Eoman  side  is  very 
different ;  but  the  main  outlines  are  the  same  in  both 
pictures.  In  both  cases  we  see  cities  which  keep 
much — which  in  some  cases  keep  everything — of  the 
outward  show  of  free  commonwealths,  but  which  do 
not  dare  to  exercise  their  powers,  even  in  very  small 
matters,  without  the  knowledge  and  good  will  of  the 
Eoman  prince  or  his  local  representative. 

The  political  treatise  of  the  wise  and  kindly  Plu- 
tarch ^  is  one  which  cannot  be  read  without  sadness. 

^  His  UoKiTiKa  UapayyeKyLora,  commonly  quoted   as   Reipublicce 
Gerendce  Prcecepta. 


THE  CITIES  UNDER  TRAJAN.  227 

To  a  Greek,  a  Boeotian,  living  in  a  land  which  had 
once  been  so  great  and  which  was  so  utterly  fallen, 
the  contrast  between  what  had  been  and  what  was 
came  more  keenly  home  than  it  could  come  to  his 
Asiatic  contemporary.  The  cities  of  Dion's  native 
Bithynia  had  never  been  so  great  in  the  past,  and 
they  were  far  more  prosperous  in  the  present,  than 
the  cities  for  whose  would-be  statesmen  and  orators 
the  sage  of  Chaironeia  had  to  give  rules.  But  in 
both  writers  we  find  things  looked  at  from  the  same 
general  point  of  view.  Local  independence  is  assumed 
as  the  state  of  things  which  exists  at  least  in  theory. 
We  read  page  after  page  of  both  Plutarch  and  Di6n 
without  any  hint  that  the  commonwealths  of  which 
they  were  speaking  had  any  superior  beyond  their 
own  walls.  Both  write  in  a  way  in  which  no  one 
would  write  for  the  instruction  of  a  newly-chosen 
town-councillor  in  a  modern  state.  It  is  for  parlia- 
ments, not  for  town-councils,  that  the  whole  language 
is  fitted.  But  ever  and  anon  we  come  to  some  passage 
which  shows  us  that  the  parliaments  with  which  we 
are  dealing  are  parhaments  working  in  fetters,  parlia- 
ments which  can  practically  do  nothing  without  the 
approval  of  a  foreign  superior.  In  our  own  land  we 
find  the  nearest  parallel  in  ecclesiastical  bodies,  and 
the  likeness  is  increased  by  the  fact  that  the  range 
within  which  the  Greek  assemblies  of  that  day  were 
most  active  was  that  which  concerned  religious  worship 
and  that  large  class  of  subjects  which  in  Greek  ideas 
were  connected  with  religious  worship.  A  Convoca- 
tion  organized   like  a  Parliament,  carrying   on  its 

Q  2 


228  GREEK  CITIES  UNDER  ROMAN  RULE. 

debates  as  freely  as  a  Parliament,  but  whose  acts  go 
for  nothing  unless  they  have  the  licence  of  the  Crown 
beforehand  and  the  consent  of  the  Crown  afterwards, 
a  Convocation  which,  without  ever  being  suppressed, 
without  ever  having  its  formal  meetings  interrupted, 
could  be  practically  suspended  for  a  hundred  and  fifty 
years,  has  far  more  likeness  to  one  of  these  G-reek 
assembhes  than  can  be  found  in  a  local  body  whose 
powera  are  narrowly  defined,  but  which  can  freely 
exercise  such  powers  as  it  has.  We  have  another 
parallel  in  the  Chapter  electing  its  Bishop,  electing 
him  freely  according  to  all  outward  look,  but  whose 
choice  not  only  needs  the  approval  of  the  Crown,  but 
is  actually  dictated  beforehand  by  the  Crown,  under 
heavy  penalties  if  that  dictation  is  not  obeyed,^  We 
read  several  chapters  of  Plutarch  which  might  have 
been  written  for  any  Greek  commonwealth  in  days 
before  either  the  later  or  the  former  Philip.  Presently 
the  mention  of  certain  demagogues  who  corrupted 
the  people  by  shows  of  gladiators  is  a  sign  that  the 
Eoman  has  entered  into  the  Greek  world. ^  But,  for 
anything  in  that  or  in  several  following  chapters,  the 
commonwealths  so  corrupted  might  have  been  as  in- 
dependent as  when  earher  demagogues  were  said  to 

*  A  still  closer  parallel  might  have  been  found  up  to  the  present 
reign,  as  long  as  the  Deans  of  the  churches  of  the  Old  Founda- 
tion were  chosen  by  the  Chapters.  By  long-standing  custom  a 
nominee  of  the  Crown  was  always  chosen,  though  there  was  not, 
as  in  the  case  of  the  election  of  Bishops,  any  legal  obligation 
BO  to  do. 

*  C.  5-  V  ^°*'  ^aXavfiov  8i86vTfs  ^  irvppixas  rivas  ^  fwvofid^av  dfdfiara 
ftapa<TK(va(ovT(s  aet  br^fjuxyayoZiri,  /ioXXof  fie  drjfWKOTrovvi. 


WITNESS  OF  PLUTARCH.  229 

have  corrupted  their  countrymen  by  allurements  of 
other  kinds.  We  go  on  further,  and  the  full  truth 
comes  out.  The  Greek  commonwealths  of  Plutarch's 
day  had  no  longer  anything  to  do  with  wars,  with 
alliances,  with  putting  down  of  tyrants,  and  some 
might  think  that  in  such  a  state  of  things  there  was 
no  room  for  statesmanship  left.  Plutarch  thought 
otherwise ;  there  were  still  public  trials  at  home ; 
there  were  embassies  to  be  sent  to  the  Emperor  ;  there 
were  dealings  with  Boman  governors,  possibly  with 
bad  governors.  These  things  needed  some  qualifica- 
tions ;  energy,  daring,  discretion,  were  all  needed  by 
those  who  had  to  plead  for  the  weak  before  the  power- 
ful.^ The  chosen  magistrate  was  not  to  despise  his 
office  because  he  had  not  so  free  a  field  as  the  magis- 
trates of  old  times ;  but  he  was  never  to  forget  the 
difference  between  him  and  them.  Perikl6s  might 
say  that  he  was  called  to  rule  among  freemen,  among 
Greeks,  among  Athenians.  The  magistrate  of  Plu- 
tarch's day  was  to  remember  that  he  ruled  with  a 
ruler  over  him  ;  that  his  city  was  in  subjection  to  the 
proconsuls  of  Eome,  to  the  procurators  of  Caesar. ^ 
War  was  impossible  ;  of  freedom  they  had  as  much 
as  their  masters  left  to  them,  as  much  perhaps  as  was 
good  for  them  ^  when  Greece  was  so  weak,  when 
there  was  no  power  left  in  her  which  the  slightest 

1  C.  lo. 

*  C  17'  dp)(6ii€Vos  ap)^(is,  vnoTfTayfiivrjt  noKfcos  avdinraTois,  firirpdnots 
Kaicrapos. 

'  C.  32.  (T^evdeplai  Se  o(rov  ot  KpaTovvrts  pepovai  roi?  Brjixois  p.fT((rTi^ 
Koi  TO  TrXeoj/  icrtur  ovk  ap^ivov. 


230  GREEK  CITIES  UNDER  ROMAN  RULE. 

bidding  of  a  proconsul  could  not  upset.^  In  such 
times  public  men  must  be  careful  to  give  no  offence, 
no  occasion,  to  dangerous  neighbours ;  they  must  above 
all  avoid,  such  occasion  as  was  given  by  disputes  at 
home  or  with  other  cities.  At  the  same  time,  while 
fully  understanding  their  dependent  position,  they 
must  avoid  base  cringing  and  flattery;  they  must  not 
make  the  governor  yet  more  of  a  master  than  he  is 
disposed  to  be  by  calling  him  in  on  all  occasions ;  ^ 
and  it  will  be  wise  to  make  some  powerful  Roman 
their  friend.^  They  will  do  well  to  study  the  records 
of  old  Greece,  but  only  for  examples  suited  to  the 
actual  state  of  things ;  tall  talk  about  Marathon  and 
Plataia  and  Eurymed6n  should  be  left  to  the  rhetoric 
of  the  schools ;  but  peaceful  examples  from  earlier 
times,  examples  of  courtesy,  humanity,  and  good  faith, 
were  as  instructive  then  as  they  ev6r  had  been."* 

The  precepts  of  Plutarch  are  perfectly  general. 
He  draws  no  distinction  between  the  different  classes 
of  cities,  according  to  the  greater  or  less  degree  of 
independence  which  they  still  formally  kept.  For 
in  truth  they  were  all  practically  in  the  same  case ; 
all  had,  in  his  own  phrase,  the  shoe  of  the  Eoman 
over  their  heads.^  The  provincial  town  could  act 
freely  in  many  things,  if  the  governor  did  not  choose 

^  C.  32.  TvoLa  dvpafiis  ^v  fiiKpov  dvOvnarov  didrayfia  KOTfXvafv  ^  fiere- 
OTtjatv  (Is  aXXo, 

^  C.  19.  oJ  TrdvTi  boyiiari  Koi  (rvvedpiai  koi  x^piTi  Koi  dionojaei  irpocra- 
yovTts  fjyffiovtKTiv  Kp'uriv  dvayKaj^ovai  favrav  ficiXXop  fj  ffovXoprai  bfcnraras 
(ivai  Toiis  ^yovfifvovs, 

'  C.  18.  *  C.  17. 

'  Ibid.    opSn-a  Tovs  KaKriovs  inava  t^s  K«l>aKris. 


DI6n  CHRTSOSTOM.  231 

to  meddle  ;  the  independent  ally  could  not  act  freely 
in  any  thing,  if  the  governor  did  choose  to  meddle. 
We  find  things  on  tbe  whole  the  same  when  we  turn 
from  the  philosopher  giving  wise  precepts  in  his 
study  to  the  orator  actually  haranguing  the  as- 
semblies whose  duties  Plutarch  so  carefully  lays 
down.  Di6n  Chrysostom  is  a  rhetorician  by  pro- 
fession, and  he  has  the  faults  of  his  profession ; 
but  there  is  much  that  is  attractive  about  the 
man  and  his  writings,  and  he  gives  us  several 
instructive  pictures  of  Greek  life  in  his  own  day. 
His  orations  on  subjects  of  theoretical  pohtics,  on 
kingship,  aristocracy,  democracy,  and  the  like,  sound 
a  little  unpractical  under  the  universal  rule  of 
Rome;  but  we  must  remember  that  it  mattered  a 
good  deal  whether  the  reigning  prince  was  Domitian 
or  Trajan.  We  gain  real  additions  to  our  knowledge 
from  the  picture  of  the  Euboian  hunter,  possessed  of 
the  civic  franchise  but  who  had  never  been  in  the 
city,  and  we  learn  better  what  an  Euboian  city  was 
like  in  Dion's  day.^  More  interesting  still  is  his 
picture  of  the  Greek  city  of  Olbia  or  Borysthen^s, 
still  clinging  to  its  Greek  speech  and  manners  amid 
the  constant  attacks  of  dangerous  barbarian  neigh- 
bours.^ Of  more  importance  for  our  purpose  is  his 
oration  to  the  Ehodians,  an  oration  of  good  advice, 
but  of  course  largely  mingled  with  panegyric  on  his 
hearers  and  their  city.  This  is  a  document  of  deep 
interest,  if  read  by  the  light  of  the  history  of  that 

^  Oration  vii.      'Ev^o'Ikos  rf  Kwrfyos. 

^  Oration  xxxvi.     BopvadtviKos. 


232  GREEK  CITIES  UNDER  ROMAN  RULE. 

illustrious  island  in  the  second  century  before  Christ. 
Ehodes  is  throughout  addressed  as  a  free  common- 
wealth, as  a  democracy;^  it  is  the  one  Greek  state 
besides  Athens  which  keeps  its  freedom  ;  ^  it  is  the 
only  one  which  still  cherishes  the  glory  of  the 
Hellenic  name.^  The  relations  of  the  state  to  Kome 
are  nowhere  dwelled  upon  after  the  manner  of 
Plutarch ;  Emperors  are  several  times  casually 
mentioned,  but  not  as  masters ;  *  the  point  of  con- 
nexion between  Ehodes  and  Eome  of  which  the 
orator  is  most  inclined  to  speak  is  the  part  played 
by  the  Ehodians  in  the  Eoman  civil  war."  He 
knows  of  no  break  between  the  mighty  Ehodes  of  an 
earHer  day  and  the  still  flourishing  democracy  which 
he  harangues.  Some  of  his  sayings  could  hardly 
have  been  approved  by  Plutarch  ;  they  are  too  much 
in  the  Marath6n  and  Eurymed6n  stjde  ;  but  they 
could  not,  even  as  flourishes,  have  been  addressed  to 
a  people  who  were  not  free,  at  least  in  theory, 
however  precarious  might  be  the  tenure  by  which 
their  freedom  was  held. 

Less  interesting  in  themselves  than  any  of  these, 

^  Oration  xxxi.  vol.  i.  p.  364,  Dindorf.  ravra  iv  trj^KpaTia  Koi  Trap* 
vfuv,  01  fxfyiaTov  (^poveire  eVt  tw  pofilptos  Koi  diKaias  dioiKflv  ra  irap' 
eavTols. 

^  Ibid.  p.  380.  To7s  p.fv  yap  ['PoStotsJ  povov  imap)(fiv  ttjv  iKtvOepiav 
bixa  A.dr]vaia>v. 

'  Ibid.  p.  350-  T^s  Xomijs  'EXXaSoy  rponov  riva  ea^fapeinjs  pMvovs 
f(f>  avTols  8uicf)vXa^ai  to  koivov  a^lcapa  ratv  'YXKrjvav  (is  rbv  vvv  napovra 
Xpovop,  So  p.  398;  povoi  KaToXfinfcrdf  twv  '^Wrfv<ov  ols  av  Koi  napaivtcrai 
Tis  Kai  nepl  a>  ((ttiv  tri  XvTnjd^vai.  Bokovvtcov  Apaprdvtiv. 

*  Ibid.  pp.  359,  380,  381,  387,  393. 
»  Ibid.  pp.  367,  383. 


TRAJAN  AND  PLINY.  233 

but  perhaps  in  a  certain  way  more  instructive,  are 
the  speeches  which  Di6n  makes  in  his  own  city  of 
Prusa  and  in  other  towns  of  his  native  province. 
He  had  to  preach  peace  and  concord  both  to  rival 
cities  and  to  rival  parties  in  the  same  city,  and  also 
to  plead  his  own  cause  against  his  own  enemies.^  The 
assemblies  which  he  addresses  are  always  assumed  to 
be  self-acting  bodies  ;  references  to  the  existence  of 
Eome  come  in  only  casually,  and  Di6n  does  not 
often  copy  the  plain-speaking  of  Plutarch.^  But 
the  speeches  of  the  Greek  orator  put  on  a  tenfold 
interest  when  we  come  to  compare  them  with  the 
memorable  correspondence  which  is  luckily  preserved 
to  us  between  a  Eoman  Emperor  and  a  proconsul 
of  Bithynia  in-Di6n's  own  day.  The  letters  which 
passed  between  Trajan  and  Pliny  seem  at  first  sight 
to  describe  a  wholly  different  state  of  things  from 
that  which  appears  in  the  speeches  of  Dion.  If  we 
compare  the  two,  we  shall  see  that  they  set  before 
us  two  opposite  sides  of  the  same  state  of  things. 
From  the  two  together  we  shall  get  a  clear  notion  of 
the  state  of  the  various  cities  of  Bithynia,  and  of  the 
different  relations  in  which,  like  those  of  any  other  pro- 
vince, they  stood  to  the  ruling  power.  Speeches  and 
letters  together  illustrate  the  show  of  freedom  which 
existed  in  perhaps  every  case,  the  reality  of  freedom 
which  existed  in  some  cases,  and  at  the  same  time 

^  See  the  forty-third  and  forty-fourth  orations. 

'^  Once  perhaps  in  the  home  orations,  xliv.  (vol.  ii.  p.  117);  fv  yap 

lerre   on  Tr]V   fx(v  Xtyofifvrfv  iXevdfpiav,   Koi   ro    ovojjia  Tovff,   o  napa  rav 
KpaTovvrav  Kai  bwapivatv  ylyvfTai  iviore  ov  hwarov  KTrjaaadai. 


234  GREEK  CITIES  UNDER  ROMAN  RULE. 

the  precarious  tenure  by  which  both  the  shadow  and 
the  reality  were  held.  We  see  the  ordinary  pro- 
vincial town,  still  keeping  the  style  of  "  res  publica," 
passing  "  psephismata/'  sending  "legati  "  to  the  Em- 
peror and  the  neighbouring  governors,  playing  in 
short  at  being  a  commonwealth,  but  not  venturing 
to  do  any  local  act  of  the  least  importance  without 
consulting  the  Emperor's  representative.  Dion  brings 
out  one  side,  Trajan  and  Pliny  bring  out  the  other 
side;  that  is  all.  Di6n  makes  a  speech  to  the 
people  of  Nikomedeia,  exhorting  them  to  peace  and 
harmony  with  the  people  of  Nikaia.  Many  passages 
would  have  been  in  place  in  the  mouth  of  a  mediator 
between  Athens  and  Sparta  five  hundred  years 
earlier.  There  is  no  direct  mention  of  any  superior 
authority  as  bearing  rule  over  both ;  the  orator 
indeed  tells  his  hearers  that  after  all  they  cannot 
make  war  on  their  enemies,^  and  warns  them  lest 
by  their  dissensions  they  make  the  Greek  name 
ridiculous  among  the  Komans.^  We  are  for  the 
moment  amazed  when  we  turn  from  this  picture  of 
two  seemingly  independent  commonwealths  to  the 
letters  which  show  how  the  Emperor  and  his  re- 
presentative had  to  be  consulted  by  Nikomedeia, 
Nikaia,  and  every  other  city,  about  the  smallest 
municipal  regulations,  about  every  kind  of  local 
improvement.^     It  is  an  odd  comment  on  the  dis- 

^  Oration  xxxviii.  Wpbs  'NiKOfxtjbfts  nepl  ofiovolas  TTJs  Trpos  Ni*fatftf. 
vol.  ii.  pp.  74,  75,  76. 

2  Ibid.  p.  80. 

=*  Epp.  Plini  et  Trajani,  31,  33,  34,  37,  39,  40,  41,  48,  49,  70, 
71,  74,  81,  90. 


NIKAIA  AND  NIKOMEDEIA.  235 

senslons  between  city  and  city  of  which  Di6a  speaks, 
when  Trajan,  remembering  how  Nikom^deia  and 
other  cities  had  been  torn  by  seditions,  will  not 
allow  the  creation  of  a  company  of  firemen,  lest  it  be 
turned  to  some  dangerous  political  purpose.^  We 
again  feel  sure  that  Pliny,  in  his  zeal,  meddled  in 
many  matters  which  a  worse  proconsul  would  have 
left  alone,  and  that,  in  his  desire  to  do  right,  he 
referred  many  things  to  the  Emperor  which  such 
a  proconsul  would  have  settled  for  liimself  in  a  high- 
handed way.  Eeading  speeches  and  letters  together, 
we  better  understand  both.  We  are  dealing  with 
commonwealths,  but  with  commonwealths  acting  in 
fetters.  They  do  everything  for  themselves  by 
votes  of  their  own  assemblies.  But  those  votes  need 
a  licence  beforehand,  a  confirmation  afterwards,  or 
both  the  one  and  the  other,  from  the  overruling 
power  that  stands  without.^ 

Both  Nikomddeia  and  Nikaia,  and  Dion's  own  city 
of  Prusa,  were  only  ordinary  provincial  towns 
with  no  special  privilege.  But  there  were  spots  in 
Bithynia  which  were  more  highly  favoured.  Here, 
as  elsewhere,  the  Koman  colony,  the  free  and  allied 
city,  were   locally  in  the  province,  but  not  of  it. 

^  Ep.  34.  "  Tibi  quidem  secundum  exempla  complurium  in 
mentem  venit  posse  collegium  fabrorum  apud  Nicomedenses  con- 
stitui.  Sed  meminerimus  provinciam  istam  et  praecipue  eas 
civitates  ejusmodi  factionibus  esse  vexatas.  Quodcumque  nomeu 
ex  quacumque  causa  dederimus  iis  qui  in  idem  contracti  fuerint 
....  hetaeriseque  fient." 

^  In  Ep.  81  there  are  references  to  Dion  himself.  He  was  a 
Roman  citizen. 


236  GREEK  CITIES  UNDER  ROMAN  RULE. 

It  is  plain  that  even  cities  of  this  rank  were  used  to 
a  good  deal  of  meddling  on  the  part  of  the  Eoman 
officers ;  but  they  resented  such  treatment  and 
appealed  to  their  privileges.  Apameia  was  no  pro^ 
vincial  town,  but  a  Eoman  colony.  Dion,  who  claimed 
to  be  one  of  its  citizens,  made  a  speech  before 
its  senate,  in  which  he  sets  forth  the  dignity  of  its 
colonial  character.^  Pliny,  more  busy  than  other 
proconsuls,  claimed  to  look  over  the  accounts  of  the 
colony.  The  colonists  told  him  that  he  was  welcome 
to  do  so,  that  it  was  their  common  wish  that  he 
should  do  so.  But  he  should  remember  that  it  was 
a  thing  which  no  proconsul  had  ever  asked  before ; 
their  ancient  privileges  gave  them  the  right  of 
managing  their  own  commonwealth  as  they  thought 
good.  Pliny  asks  for  and  receives  a  statement  of 
their  case  in  writing.  He  thinks  much  of  the  paper 
irrelevant ;  but  he  sends  it  to  the  Emperor  to  be 
guided  by  his  judgement.  In  all  this  correspond- 
ence one  somehow  thinks  of  the  correspondence  of 
Augustine  and  Gregory;  the  superior  is  so  clearly 
the  wiser  man  of  the  two.  Trajan  writes  back  that 
the  straightforward  dealing  of  the  men  of  Apameia  is 
to  be  respected ;  the  proconsul  is  to  tell  them  that  it 
is  by  the  Emperor's  special  request  that  he  asks  to 
look  at  their  accounts  ;  he  is  to  do  so  without  any 
prejudice  to  their  privileges  for  the  future. ^     We 

^  Oration  xli.  vol.  ii.  pp.  103,  105. 

^  Plin.  et  Traj.  Epist.  47,  48  (56,  57).  The  claim  of  the  colony 
is  "habuisse  privilegium  et  vetustissimum  raorem  arbitrio  suo 
rem    publicam   administrare."     The   Emperor's   answer   is,   "Ee- 


APAMEIA  THE  COLONY.  237 

here  see  plainly  enough  the  difference  inherent  in 
the  position  of  a  Eoman  colony  as  distinguished 
from  that  of  an  ordinary  town  of  the  province. 
Still  an  Emperor  and  a  proconsul  less  scrupulous 
than  Trajan  and  Pliny  might  have  made  short  work 
of  the  liberties  of  Apameia.  Under  the  men  with 
whom  the  colonists  had  actually  to  deal,  those 
liberties,  when  once  established  by  sufficient  evidence, 
were  safe. 

But  within  the  geographical  limits  of  Bithynia 
there  was  something  yet  higher  than  a  Koman 
colony.  Amisos  was  an  independent  state  sur- 
rounded by  Roman  territory.  The  city  had  in  past 
times  seen  many  settlers  and  many  masters ;  it  was 
at  last  delivered  from  its  oppressors  by  Augustus 
Caesar,  and  it  became  a  free  ally  of  Rome,  bound  to 
Rome  only  by  the  terms  of  its  treaty.  ^  We  know  not 
what  those  terms  were ;  they  may,  like  treaties  with 
Gades  and  Aitolia,  have  formally  bound  Amisos  to 

muneranda  est  igitur  probitas  eorum,  et  jam  nunc  sciant  quod 
inspecturus  es  ex  mea  voluntate  salvis,  quae  habent  privilegiis  esse 
facturum." 

^  See  its  own  citizen  Strabo,  xii.  3  (iii.  24  Tauchnitz).  The 
Dictator  Caesar  delivered  it  from  Pharnakes ;   Antonius  Trape'SwKc 

/SatrtXeutrt,    tir    fjXevdepadrj    TroXti'    /nrrct    ra    'AicTiaKa    ino    Kaiaapos  tov 

2f^do-Tou  Koi  vvv  fv  avveaTTjKfv.  Pliny  (92  or  93)  says,  " Amisenorum 
civitas  libera  et  fcederata  beneficio  indulgentise  tuse  legibus  suis 
utitur."  Trajan  answers,  "  Si  legibus  istorum  quibus  de  officio 
foederis  utuntur  concessura  est  eranon  habere,"  &c.  "In  cseteris 
civitatibus,  quae  nostro  jure  obstrictae  sunt,  res  hujusmodi  prohi- 
benda  est."  There  is  another  mention  of  Amisos  in  Letter  no, 
which  reads  rather  like  sharp  practice  on  the  part  of  the  free  and 
allied  city,  its  boule  and  ecclesia. 


238  GREEK  CITIES  UNDER  ROMAN  RULE. 

respect  the  majesty  of  Eome,  or  they  may  not. 
That  difference  mattered  little  to  a  commonwealth 
whose  geographical  position  compelled  it  in  any  case 
practically  to  respect  that  majesty.  But  it  mattered 
greatly  that,  withia  its  own  walls,  Amisos  was  by 
right  perfectly  free,  governed  by  its  own  laws,  which 
might  or  might  not  agree  with  the  laws  of  Eome. 
Still  it  is  plain  that  its  treaty  rights  could  not 
always  secure  the  commonwealth  from  the  meddling 
of  Eoman  proconsuls.  And  it  again  marks  the 
difference  between  the  servant  and  the  master  that 
Pliny  speaks  of  the  liberties  of  Amisos  as  existing 
by  the  indulgence  of  Trajan,  while  Trajan  himself 
grounds  them  directly  on  the  faith  of  treaties.  The 
proconsul  asks  if  an  eranos,  a  benefit  club,  is  to  be 
allowed  in  Amisos,  Such  a  question  marks  the  way 
in  which  the  rights  even  of  a  perfectly  free  city  were 
liable  to  be  interfered  with.  Trajan,  as  we  have 
seen  in  the  case  of  the  Nikomddeian  firemen,  had  a 
great  dislike  to  unions  and  societies  of  any  kind 
which  might  possibly  be  turned  to  political  ends. 
No  eranos  is  to  be  allowed  in  any  city  that  is  subject 
to  the  laws  of  Eome.  But  at  Amisos,  a  city  ruled 
by  its  own  laws,  Pliny  is  not  to  interfere  with  the 
establishment  of  such  a  body.  The  way  in  which 
the  great  Emperor  speaks  ls  remarkable.  The  might 
of  Caesar  stands  disarmed  before  the  majesty  of 
treaties.  Trajan  carries  out  a  certain  policy  where- 
ever  he  has  the  legal  right  to  do  so ;  where  he  has 
no  such  right,  he  forbears.  Yet  his  words  seem  to 
imply  that  even  he,  the  just  Emperor,  might  have 


AMISOS  THE  FREE  CITY.  239 

interfered  with  the  rights  of  the  free  commonwealth, 
had  he  seen  really  good  cause  for  doing  so.^  What 
other  Emperors  and  other  proconsuls  did,  with  or 
without  cause,  it  is  easy  to  guess. 

It  is  not  at  all  wonderful  if  most  of  the  business 
done  by  the  assemblies  of  these  commonwealths  had 
to  do  with  religious  and  social  matters,  and  again 
with  formal  and  trifling  matters,  with  votes  of 
honours,  statues,  and  the  like.  As  Dion  several 
times  tells  them  implicitly,  as  Plutarch  tells  them 
more  directly,  the  decision  of  greater  matters  had 
passed  into  other  hands.  The  point  is  that  these 
cities  still  kept  the  form  of  commonwealths,  common- 
wealths that  must  have  passed  most  of  their  lives  in 
fear  and  trembling,  but  still  commonwealths,  even 
if  in  fetters,  not  mere  municipalities,  such  as  we  are 
used  to  in  our  own  day.  In  Eastern  Europe  and 
Western  Asia  this  state  of  things  is  the  direct  and 
necessary  consequence  of  the  events  of  the  Polybian 
age.  The  history  of  the  Koman  power  in  Western 
Europe  is  a  wholly  distinct  subject.  There  Rome 
did  not  enslave  or  destroy,  but  created.  The  towns 
of  the  West  looked  forward,  while  the  Greek 
commonwealths  looked  backward.  The  gradual  ex- 
tinction of  these  last  was  the  necessary  consequence 
of  later  changes,  of  changes  which  followed  on  the 
centralizing  and  despotic  tendencies  of  the  later 
Empire.     Much  of  local  independence  had  vanished 

^  "Possumus  quo  minus  habeant  non  impedire,  eo  facilius  si  tali 
conlatione  non  ad  turbas  et  ad  inlicitos  ccetus,  sed  ad  sustinendara 
tenuiorura  inopam  utuntur." 


240  GREEK  CITIES  UNDER  ROMAN  RULE. 

between  Strabo's  day  and  Pliny's ;  the  Lykian 
League  itself  was  a  thing  of  the  past  when  Trajan 
respected  the  privileges  of  Amisos.  How  late  any 
traces  of  freedom  hngered  we  need  not  here  inquire. 
My  present  object  is  to  show  the  long  abiding  effects 
of  the  peculiar  process  by  which  the  Koman  dominion 
was  definitely  formed  in  that  great  determining  period 
of  the  world's  history  which  is  marked  by  the  second 
century  before  Christ. 


INDEX. 


A. 

Ahyssinia,  Christianity  of,  67. 

Achaia,  dealings  of  Eome  with,  218. 

Jilfred,  his  view  of  early  Greek 
history,  18. 

Africa,  Saracen  conquest  of,  133. 

Agamemnon,  his  imperial  posi- 
tion, 18,  19. 

Agathokles,  two  sides  of,  33. 

Akaniania,  its  position  in  Ho- 
meric times,  19;  becomes  Greek, 
24. 

Akragas,  its  time  of  greatness,  25. 

'AXa/Liai'wi'  pt]^,  title  of,  107. 

Alans,  their  history  and  settle- 
ment, 87,  88;   122. 

Alaric,  his  career,  78. 

Albanians,  their  origin,  119. 

'AX^ai/oi,  opposed  to  'Pw/xatoi,   141. 

Alexander,  founder  of  the  modern 
Greek  nation,  1 6 ;  his  work  in 
the  East,  17;  his  dealings  with 
the  Greek  cities,  179. 

Alexander  of  E2)eiros,  1 7 ;  his 
designs,  34. 

Alexandria,  its  relation  to  older 
Greek  cities,  23. 

Alexias  Komnenos,  compared  with 
Henry  the  Fourth,  162. 

Allies,  Roman,  their  relations  to 
Rome,  82,83;  218-220;  their 
slow  incoi*poration,  84,  85 ; 
219—221. 

Ambrakia,  its  beginnings,  24. 

Amisos,  dealings  of  Trajan  and 
Pliny  with,  237,  238. 

Amphiktyonic  Council,  nullity  of, 
178,  179;  its  refoi-m  by  Au- 
gustus, 225. 


^m/orra,  relations  of,  217. 

Angles,  first  mentioned,  64. 

Antalkidas,  Peace  of,  28. 

Antiocli,  its  relation  to  older 
Greek  cities,  23. 

Antoninus  Caracalla,  effects  of 
his  edict,  42. 

Apameia,  dealings  of  Trajan  and 
Pliny  with,  236,  237. 

Aquce  Sextice,  battle  of,  44 ;  60. 

Aquitaine,  position  of  cities  in, 
192;  its  relations  to  France, 
195;  its  separation  from  Bur- 
gundy, 196. 

Aries,  capital  of  Southern  Gaul, 

85; 

Arminius, his  historic  position,  64 . 
Arnold,  Thomas,  point  chosen  by 

for  the  ending  of  his  History, 

104. 
Asia  Minor,  its  historic  position, 

Athens,  her  history  mistaken  for 
that  of  Greece,  21  ;  remains 
specially  pagan,  74  ;  her  rela- 
tions to  Rome,  84,  85 ;  her 
position  under  Trajan,  232. 

Aurelian,  his  dealings  with  the 
Goths,  77. 

Austria,  the  Frankish,  effect  of 
the  rise  of  its  Mayors,  9 1 . 

Austrian  Em2)erors,  their  relations 
to  the  Popes,  183. 

A  ustrian  Empire,  1 5 1  - 1 5  2 . 

Avignon,  Popes  at,  157. 

B. 
Bajazet,  Keiser  of  Roum,  145. 
Barbarians,  conversion  of,  67. 


242 


INDEX. 


Basil  the  Macedonian,  his  contro- 
versy with  Lewis  the  Second, 
io8. 

Basil  the  Second,  Emperor,  132, 

133; 

Bao-tXevy,  title  of,  1 08. 

Basques,  Iberian  elements  pre- 
served by,  93. 

Belisarius,  Roman  consul,  125. 

Beneventum,  battle  of,  45. 

Bithifnia,  different  position  of  its 
cities  under  Trajan,  233-238. 

Britain,  Roman  influence  in,  94 ; 
Continental,  its  origin,  89  ; 
Celtic  elements  preserved  in,  93. 

Buonajxirte,  Napoleon,  his  posi- 
tion and  objects,  149-151. 

Burgundians,  their  settlement  in 
Gaul,  89;  123. 

Burgundy,  position  of  cities  in, 
191,  192;  its  separation  from 
Aquitaine,  196  ;  represented 
by  Switzerland,  197,  198. 

Byzantine,  use  of  the  name,  129. 

C. 

CcBsar,  his  work  in  Gaul,  61,  65. 

Capitular  elections,  their  analogy 
with  Greek  cities,  228. 

Car</mgre,  her  beginnings,  24;  the 
rival  of  Greece,  29  ;  her  wars  in 
Sicily,  30  ;  her  rivalry  and  first 
war  with  Rome,  46,  47 ;  strife 
of  with  Rome  for  Spain,  48,  49; 
her  fall  and  new  birth,  54. 

Catalaunian  Fields,  battle  of,  44. 

Catalogue,  the  Homeric,  its  his- 
toric value,  18-20. 

Charles  Martel,  his  defeat  of  the 
Saracens,  134. 

Charles  the  Great,  effect  of  his 
coronation,  104  ;  nature  of  his 
Empire,  106,  107;  successor  of 
Constantine  the  Sixth,  106 ; 
his  position  towards  the  East, 
107,  108;  his  successors,  130. 

Charles  the  Fourth,  Emperor,  his 
coronations,  147. 


Charles  the  Fifth,  last  Imperator, 
138  ;  his  coronation  at  Bologna, 
ib.  ;   real  source  of  his  power, 

139- 

Charles  the  Sixth,  Emperor,  152. 

Cherson,  its  beginnings,  24;  its 
relations  to  Rome,  84 ;  Roman 
annexation  of,  221—222. 

Chlodowig,  unites  the  Frankish 
kingdoms,  189. 

Christianity,  its  relation  to  the 
Roman  power,  67-69  ;  its 
special  rivalry  with  Mahomet- 
anism,  133. 

Cities,  answer  to  nations,  177, 
178;  183;  contrasted  with  na- 
tions, 186-188;  their  chief 
developement  among  Southern 
nations,  186  ;  difficulty  of 
uniting,  187  ;  their  position  in 
Northern  and  Southern  Gaul, 
191,  192;  their  history  and 
position  in  modern  Europe, 
199-205  ;  their  history  in  Ger- 
many, 200-205;  suppression  of, 
201-202. 

Civilis,  compared  with  Buona- 
parte, 151. 

Clermont,  Council  of,  162. 

Colonies,  Greek,  14 ;  their  rela- 
tion to  Macedonian  conquests, 
16  ;  their  beginnings,  19  ; 
their  time  of  greatness,  23-26  ; 
their  extent,  24-26. 

Condominium,  survival  of,  211. 

Conquest,  Roman  and  Teutonic 
compared,  85. 

Constance,  Peace  of,  compared 
with  that  of  Westfalia,  139. 

Constantine  the  Great,  his  changes 
at  Rome,  74  ;  his  foundation  of 
Constantinople,  ib. 

Constantine  Palaiologos,  his  death, 
170  ;  compared  with  Leopold 
the  First,  171. 

Constantinojyle,  its  various  names, 
74;  Christian  from  the  begin- 
ning, ib. ;  its  position  compared 


INDEX. 


243 


with  that  of  old  Rome,  loo- 
103  ;  never  without  a  resident 
Emperor,  loi ;  its  loss  in  1 204, 
139  ;  its  recovery,  142  ;  Latin 
Empire  at,  145  ;  its  position, 
160  ;  taking  of.  May  29,  1453, 
168-170  ;  Latin  rites  in  Saint 
Sophia,  170. 

Convocation,  English,  its  analogy 
with  Gx'eek  cities,  227,  228. 

Crete,  mention  of  in  Homer,  19. 

Crusade,  First,  161,  162. 

Crusade,  Fourth,  164,  165. 

Cyj)rus,  rivalry  of  Greek  and 
Phoenician  in,  24  ;  Empire  of, 
143;  conquered  by  Richard,  ib. 

D. 
Dacia,  its  conquest  and  cession, 

77. 

Dante,  his  doctrine  of  the  Empire, 
68;  his  theory  carried  out  in 
the  East,  159. 

Departments,  French,  their  posi- 
tion, 210. 

Diocletian,  his  changes,  73,  74;  86. 

Didn  Chrysostom,  his  account  of 
contemporary  Greek  common- 
wealths, 225-234  ;  value  of 
his  Orations,  231  ;  his  speech 
to  the  Ehodians,  232;  his 
speech  at  Prusa,  233  ;  at  Niko- 
medeia,  234. 

Dionysios,  two  sides  of,  33. 

Diplomacy,  in  the  third  century 
B.C.,  37. 

E. 

East,  growth  of  native  powers  in, 
in  the  first  and  second  cen- 
turies B.C.,  65. 

Eastern  Fm2)erors,  their  religious 
character,  159. 

Eastern  Empire,  in  what  sense 
Greek,  112-120  ;  in  what 
sense  Roman,  11 7-1 19;  its 
power  of  revival,  128;  use  of 
the  name,  129;  its  calling,  130; 


its  wars  with  the  Saracens, 
135 ;  with  the  Turks,  ib.  ; 
practically  ends  in  1204,  136; 
139-144 ;  its  survival  and 
fragments,  145 ;  its  greatest 
days,  160  j  its  crusades,  ib., 
161. 

Eastern  Question,  eternal,  5. 

Egyj)t,  early  Greek  knowledge  of, 
20  ;  its  relations  to  Greece,  26  ; 
Saracen  conquest  of,  133. 

Eleventh  Century  A.D.,  its  his- 
tory, 135. 

"'EWj^v,  use  of  the  name,  112;  140. 

Empereur  d'Allemagne  et  d'Au- 
triche,  title  of,  149. 

Empereur  des  Franjais,  title  of, 
149. 

Emjjeror,  various  uses  of  the 
name,  144. 

Emperor  of  the  East,  title  of,  143, 

144- 

Emperors,  joint  reign  of  several, 
75  ;  pre-eminence  of  those  in 
the  East,  ib. ;  rival  claims  of 
in  East  and  West,  107,  108; 
contrast  of  in  East  and  West, 
1 2  o,  1 2 1 ;  origin  of  their  power, 
212-214. 

Empire,  vague  uses  of  the  word, 

155- 

Empire,  Eastern,  see  Eastern  Em- 
pire. 

Empire,  Roman,  see  Roman  Em- 
pire. 

Empire^  Western,  see  Westera  Em- 
pire. 

Em,pires,  various  Greek,  in  the 
fourteenth  century,  143,  144. 

England,  its  steps  towards  union, 
188. 

Epeiros,  its  relations  to  Greece, 
13,  14;  25;  plans  of  her 
kings  in  the  West,  34 ;  sug- 
gested by  the  Macedonian  con- 
quests, ib. ;  Empire  of,  143. 

Erbkaiser  von  Oesterreich,  title 
of,  151. 


R  2 


244 


INDEX. 


Euhoia,  account  of  by  Dion  Chry- 
sostoni,  231. 

Eurojpe,  three  marked  periods  in 
its  history,  4 ;  its  geographical 
character,  6 ;  its  analogies  in 
the  earliest  and  latest  times, 
176. 

F. 

Federal  States,  examples  of  in  the 
third  century  B.C.,  36. 

Federations,  their  long  survivals 
in  Greece,  225. 

Fifth  Century  A.D.,  its  character 
and  relation  to  earlier  times, 
79  ;  compared  with  the  third 
century  B.C.,  81  ;  sketch  of  its 
history,  122-124. 

Fifth  Century  B.C.,  a  time  of 
Greek  decline,  21;  its  effect  on 
the  Teutonic  nations,  85-95. 

Fivlay,  George,  his  view  of  the 
fifth  century  B.C.,  21. 

France,  formation  of,  91,  92  ;  its 
growth,  190-192  ;  position  of 
cities  in,  191. 

France,  Duchy  of,  its  dismember- 
ment, 190, 

Francia,  name  of,  89 ;  divisions 
of,  91. 

Frankfurt,  its  ccmmonwealth  sup- 
pressed, 202. 

Franks,  their  appearance  in  Gaul, 
78;  translation  of  tlie  Empire 
to,  112  ;  their  advance  in 
Gaul,  123  ;  union  of  their  king- 
doms, 1 89 ;  fourfold  division  of, 
196. 

Frederick  the  Second,  Emperor,  his 
crusade,  163;  effects  of  his 
treatment  by  the  Popes,  ib. 

Frederick  the  Third,  Emperor, 
138;   147. 

Free  Cities,  hindrances  to  national 
growth,  193. 

French  Em2nre.  149— 151. 

French  language,  its  fcrmation, 
190. 


French  nation,  its  origin,  91,  92  ; 
its  formation,  190-192. 

G. 

Gascons,  see  Basques. 

Gaul,  Cisalpine,  Eoman  conquest 
of,  49;  its  Eoman  life,  61,  62  ; 
Teutonic  settlements  in,  87 ; 
how  affected  by  the  Teutonic 
invasions,  90,  91  ;  Southern, 
Romance  growth  in,  91 ;  its 
disunion,  189  ;  national  ele- 
ments in,  195-197. 

Gauls,  their  relation  to  Home, 
86  ;  their  adoption  of  the  Ro- 
man name,  87. 

Gela,  its  time  of  greatness,  25. 

George  Maniakes,  his  recovery  of 
Syracuse,  135. 

German,  use  of  the  name,  113. 

German  Empire,  153. 

Germans,  their  invasions,  77 ; 
their  relation  to  the  Empire, 
ib. 

Germany,  its  connexion  with  the 
Western  Empire,  147  ;  its  dis- 
union, 189;  less  divided  than 
Italy,  193;  position  of  cities 
in,  2CO— 205. 

Ghibelline  theory,  carried  out  in 
the  East,  159. 

Gibbon,  Edward,  extent  of  his 
history,  75. 

Gothia,  name  of,  88. 

Goths,  their  dealings  with  the 
Empire,  77-79;  their  settle- 
ment in  Gaul,  89 ;  their  taking 
of  Rome,  95 ;  their  position 
in  East  and  "West,  99  ;  their 
settlement  in  Gaul  and  Spain, 
123. 

Graeci,  use  of  the  name,  112. 

Gratian,  refuses  the  Pagan  pon- 
tificate, 155. 

Greece,  its  geographical  character, 
6  ;  its  historic  calling,  7  ;  its 
connexion  with  other  Aiyan 
lands,  7,  8 ;  its  influence  com- 


INDEX. 


245 


pared  with  that  of  Rome,  8- 
lo  ;  its  position  towards  the 
East,  II,  12  j  its  relations  to 
Rome,  1 5  ;  various  forms  of 
its  influence,  i6;  its  geogra- 
phical boundary,  1 7  ;  two  main 
periods  of  its  influence,  21,  22  ; 
its  decline  in  the  fourth  cen- 
tury B.C.,  32  ;  its  influence  in 
East  and  West,  34;  I'elations 
of  Rome  to,  after  the  first 
Macedonian  war,  54,  55  ;  its 
influence  extended  by  Rome, 
92,  93  ;  international  law  in 
its  oldest  times,  178  ;  in  Mace- 
donian times,  179  ;  highest  de- 
velopement  of  cities  in,  186; 
survival  of  Federal  systems  in, 
225  ;  its  position  under  Trajan, 
229. 

Greece,  Greater,  1 4  ;  falls  away 
from  Greek  life,  17;  its  most 
brilliant  time,  25, 

Greek,  use  of  the  name,  113;  in 
the  sixth  century,  126,  127; 
in  the  thirteenth,  140,  141. 

Greek  cities,  their  position  under 
the  Roman  Empire,  239;  gra- 
dual extinction  of  their  free- 
dom, 239,  240. 

Greek  language,  its  history  in  the 
Eastern  Empire,  1 1 5-1 1 7. 

Greek  nation,  modern,  its  origin, 
16. 

Greek  studies,  their  value,  9,  10. 

Greeks,  their  relations  to  other 
nations,  1 3 ;  their  geographical 
position,  17,  18;  their  relation 
to  R,ome,  86;  their  adoption  of 
the  Roman  name,  ib. 

Gregory  the  Great,  his  letter  to 
Phocas,  125  ;   158. 

Gregory  the  Seventh,  his  career 
and  death,  156,  157. 

H. 

Eadriatic  Sea,  Western  boundary 
of  permanent  Greek  life,  17. 


Hamilkar,  his  exploits  and  those 
of  his  House,  48. 

Hannibal,  his  character  and  his- 
toric position,  50-53. 

Hannibalian  war,  its  character, 
50-52. 

Hansa,  its  growth,  201  ;  its  de- 
cline, 202  ;  its  modern  sur- 
vival, 202-204. 

Henry  the  Fourth,  Emperor,  his 
position  at  the  time  of  the  First 
Crusade,  162. 

Henry  the  Seventh,  Emperor,  132  ; 
147. 

^eracZms,  his  exploits,  129;  133. 

Herodotus,  his  clear  view  of  his- 
tory, 18  ;   21. 

Holy  Roman  Emjnre  of  the  Ger~ 
man  Nation,  g^;   iii;  112. 

Homer,  his  historic  witness,  18- 
20. 


Imperator  and  Imperator  electus, 
III. 

Im'perial  "power,  its  original  na- 
ture, 69 ;  its  slow  growth,  73, 

Innocent  the  Third,  his  relation  to 
the  Fourth  Crusade,  165. 

International  law,  times  of  its 
importance,  177-180  ;  its  diffi- 
culty, 177;  ceases  under  the 
Roman  power,  180. 

Italy,  relations  of  its  nations  to 
the  Greek  cities,  31  ;  help  for 
its  cities  sought  in  Greece,  32— 
34  ;  how  affected  by  the  Teu- 
tonic invasions,  90,  91  ;  its 
position  under  Theodoric,  97, 
98 ;  reconquered  by  the  Em- 
pire, 98 ;  divided  between  the 
Empire  and  the  Lombards,  ib. ; 
southern  part  remains  Greek,  ib.; 
developement  of  cities  in,  186; 
its  disunion,  189;  193;  position 
of  cities  in,  191  ;  its  reunion, 
193-195;  its  drawbacks,  194. 


246 


INDEX. 


J. 

Janissaries,  167. 

Jerusalem,  recovered  by  Frederick 
the  Second,  163. 

Jews,  revival  of  their  power  un- 
der the  Maccabees,  66  ;  their 
mission  in  the  world,  ib. 

John  Sobieski,  Vienna  delivered 

by,  171. 

Joseph  the  Second,  Emperor,  152. 

Justinian,  closes  the  University  of 
Athens,  85  ;  his  historic  posi- 
tion, 126-128. 

K. 

Kingship,  various  forms  of  in  the 

Polybian  age,  36, 
Korkyra,  its  position  in  Homeric 

times,  20;  becomes  Greek,  24. 
Kyrene,  colonization  of,  24. 


Latin  language,  its  history  in  the 
Eastern  Empire,  1 1 4-1 1 7. 

Aarlvot,  Opposed  to  'Pw/xaiot,  141. 

Lectures,  scheme  of,  204-206 ; 
given  in  America,  205. 

Leo  the  Isaurian,  beats  back  the 
Saracens,  134. 

Leojiold  the  First,  Emperor,  com- 
pared with  Constantine  Palaio- 
logos,  171. 

Lesbos,  mention  of  in  Homer,  1 9. 

Levns  the  Second,  Emperor,  his 
controversy  with  Basil  the  Ma- 
cedonian, 108  ;  his  position  in 
Italy,  130,  131. 

lAgnilz,  defeat  of  the  "Mongols  at, 
161. 

Lubeck,  its  coinage,  202. 

Lykia,  League  of,  37  ;  its  history 
and  constitution,  222,  223. 

M. 

Macedonia,  its  relations  to  Greece, 
14. 


Macedonian  Conquests,  effects  of, 

14,  15- 
Macedonian  LJmperorSjtheir  work, 

132,  133- 

Macedonian  Wars,  character  of 
the  First,  51,  52. 

Magyars,  effects  of  their  settle- 
ment and  conversion,  94. 

Mahomet  the  Second,  his  Euro- 
pean position,  167. 

Mahometan  history,  its  date,  11. 

Mahometanism,,  its  special  rivalry 
with  Christianity,  133. 

Marcus,  his  reign,  76. 

Maria  Theresa,  152. 

Marius,  Gains,  his  work,  60. 

Massalia,  its  time  of  greatness, 
25  ;  its  two  republican  periods, 
192. 

Maximilian,  Imperator  electus, 
138  ;  his  tomb,  147. 

Merwings,  end  of,  158, 

Miletos,  mention  of  in  Homer,  19. 

Mogid  Empire,  150. 

Myken^,  Empire  of,  18. 

N. 

Nations,  answer  to  cities,  177, 
178;   183;  definition  of,  192, 

193- 

Nikaia,  Sultans  of,  135,  144, 
145;  Emperors  of,  140;  their 
recovery  of  Constantinople, 
142  ;  its  position  under  Tra- 
jan, 234,  235. 

Nikephoros,  Emperor,  acknow- 
ledges the  claim  of  Charles  the 
Great,  108. 

Nikomedeia,  its  position  under 
Trajan,  234,  235. 

Normandy,  settlement  of,  190. 

0. 

Odowakar,  his  position  and  his- 
tory, 96. 

Odysseus,  his  relation  to  his  over- 
lord, 18. 


INDEX. 


247 


OlUa,  Dion  Chrysostom's  account 

of,  231. 
Olympiad,  First,  a  starting-point, 

10,  II. 
Otto  the  Great,  Emperor,  131. 
Otto  the  Third,  Emperor,  131. 
Ottoman  Turks,  their  advance  in 

Asia  and  Europe,  165-168. 


Palaiologoi,  their  Empire  a  sur- 
vival of  the  old  Empii-e,  142; 
their  recovery  of  Peloponnesos, 
ib. 

Panormos,  Phoenician  colony,  24. 

Paris,  the  centre  of  France,  191. 

Parthia,  Greek  influence  on,  1 5  ; 
its  relations  to  Rome,  62. 

Patricians,  Teutonic,  105. 

Peloponnesos,  recovered  by  the 
Palaiologoi,  142. 

Pergamon,  the  model  kingdom, 
37 ;  its  relations  to  Rome, 
56 ;  dealings  of  Rome  with, 
218. 

Persia,  its  historic  position,  27- 
29 ;  its  alliance  with  Carthage, 
30 ;  its  new  birth  and  rivalry 
with  Rome,  63. 

Persian  Wars,  their  nature,  21. 

Phili]),  how  looked  on  at  Mega- 
lopolis, 32. 

Philip  the  Fifth,  his  failure  to 
help  Hannibal,  51,  54. 

Phoenicia,  its  history  and  relation 

to  Greece,   12;  20;   extent  of 

its  colonization,   24;    26;    its 

older  and  newer  cities,  29. 

Physical  inventions,  their  political 

effect,  183-185. 
Pippin,  Patrician,  105  ;  recovers 
Septimania  from  the  Saracens, 
134;  his  unction,  158. 
Pliny,   his    correspondence   with 
Trajan,   225,   226;    233-239; 
his    dealings    with    Apameia, 
236;  with  Amisos,  237. 
Plutarch,  his  account  of  contem- 


porary Greek  commonwealths, 
225-230;  his  political  precepts , 
227-230. 

Poland,  Vienna  delivered  by,  171  ; 
share  of  the  House  of  Austria 
in  its  partition,  172. 

Poll/bios,  preserves  the  non- 
Athenian  tradition  of  Philip, 
32  ;  character  of  his  age,  35  ; 
his  experience  compared  with 
that  of  Thucydides,  35,  36. 

Pomj)eius  Gnaeus,  his  work  in  the 
East,  61. 

Pontius  Telesinus,  61. 

Pontes,  Greek  influence  on,  15. 

Popes,  a  survival  of  the  Empire, 
1555  origin  and  growth  of 
their  power,  156-158;  their 
encroachments  in  the  East, 
165;  170;  chosen  from  Ita- 
lians only,  182;  their  I'ela- 
tions  to  the  Austrian  Emperors, 
183. 

Pragmatic  Sanction,  152. 

Presshurg,  Treaty  of,  149. 

Protected  states,  their  position, 
224. 

Provence,  its  commonwealth,  192. 

Provinces,  slow  annexation  of,  72, 
73  ;  position  of  different  towns 
in,  215-216. 

Prusa,  speech  of  Dion  Chrysos- 
tom  at,  232. 

Punic  Wars,  an  episode  in  Euro- 
pean history,  49,  50. 

Pyrrhos,  his  Hellenic  position, 
14  ;  17;  his  designs,  34  ;  effects 
of  his  war  with  Rome,  45. 

E. 

Eagusa,  its  commonwealth  sup- 
pressed, 203. 

Ravenna,  Emperors  at,  157. 

Eespublica,  use  of  the  word,  125. 

Rex  Graecise,  Eastern  Emperor  so 
called,  108,  109. 

Rhodes,  mention  of  in  Homer,  1 9  ; 
democracy  of,  36 ;  dealings  of 


248 


IND'EX. 


Rome   with,    218;    speech   of 
Dion  Chrysostom  at,  231,  232. 

Roger,  Count,  his  recovery  of 
Sicily,  135. 

Roman,  use  of  the  name,  43. 

Roman  Church,  its  boundaries, 
181,  182. 

Roman  Emjnre,  when  did  its  de- 
cline begin  ?  75  ;  its  extension, 
76 ;  effect  of  the  fifth  century 
on,  79;  its  traditions  kept  on 
in  the  East,  79,  80;  relations 
of  its  Eastern  and  Western 
divisions,  79-81  ;  its  enlarge- 
ment under  Charles,  105  ;  109, 
no  ;  its  nature  under  Chai'les, 
106,  107  ;  its  final  division  in 
800,  108, 109  ;  parted  from  the 
Roman  nation,  no,  in; 
translation  of,  112-114;  its 
extent  in  the  fifth  century, 
122;  its  reconquest  in  the 
sixth  century,  124-126;  ad- 
vance of  centralization  in,  211; 
change  from  republic  to  em- 
pire, 212-214. 

Roman  kingdom,  in  Gaul,  123. 

Rom,an  nation,  created  by  the 
Edict  of  Antoninus,  42;  its 
growth,  70,  71  ;  73. 

Roman  Senate,  acts  as  an  inter- 
national court,  57,  58. 

Romance  languages,  their  origin, 

Romance  nations,  their  origin,  90— 
92  ;  their  relation  to  the  Roman 
Church,  182. 

Romani,  use  of  the  name,  73,  in. 

Romania,  Latin  Empire  of,  145  ; 
its  style,  146. 

Rome,  her  historic  position,  3,  4 ; 
her  epithet  of  "  Eternal,"  4 ;  her 
part  in  the  Eastern  Question, 
5  ;  her  relation  to  Greece,  1 5  ; 
her  early  position,  26;  her  first 
dealings  with  Greeks,  31  ; 
her  sudden  entrance  in  the 
•East,  35  ;  37  ;  slowness  of  her 


second  advance,  39-41  ;  her 
first  relations  with  Greece,  40, 
4 1 ;  importance  of  her  geogra- 
graphical  position,  41  ;  her 
rule,  the  rule  of  a  city,  42  ; 
her  historic  calling,  43 ;  tier 
relations  to  Gauls  and  Teu- 
tons, 43,  44 ;  her  growth  in 
Italy,  44,  45 ;  effects  of  her 
war  with  Pyrrhos,  45 ;  her 
rivaliy  and  first  war  with  Car- 
thage, 46,  47 ;  strife  of  with 
Carthage  for  Spain,  48,  49 ; 
her  establishment  beyond  the 
Hadriatic,  49,  50 ;  how  af- 
fected by  the  Hannibalian  war, 
50-53 ;  her  position  in  the 
East  after  the  first  Macedonian 
war,  54-55  ;  her  advance  in 
the  second  century  B.C.,  55— 
59  ;  her  time  of  trial,  60,  61  ; 
her  relations  with  Syria  and 
Gaul,  61,  62;  her  calling  in 
the  East,  62,  63 ;  her  special 
rivalry  with  Persia,  63 ;  her 
fixst  dealings  with  Germany, 
64  ;  Christianity  needful  for  its 
mission,  67  ;  change  from  com- 
monwealth to  Empire,  69  ;  its 
efiect  on  the  city  and  the  pro- 
vince, 69,  70  ;  lessening  of  her 
local  importance,  73,  74 ;  re- 
mains specially  Pagan,  7  4  ; 
falls  away  from  the  Empire, 
80 ;  her  relation  to  her  allies, 
82-85  '■>  their  slow  incorpora- 
tion, 84,  85 ;  extension  of 
Greek  influence  by,  93 ;  her 
influence  extended  by  the  Teu- 
tonic settlements,  ib. ;  her  in- 
fluence beyond  the  Empire^ 
94  ;  taken  by  the  Goths,  95  ; 
never  occupied  by  the  Lom- 
bards, 98  ;  her  position  com- 
pared with  that  of  Constanti- 
nople, 100-102 ;  absence  of 
the  Emperors  from,  loi  ;  her 
relations     to     Mahometanism, 


INDEX. 


249 


133  >  represented  by  the  Popes, 
164,  165  ;  181,  182  ;  the 
world  without  Rome,  173- 
176;  the  world  before  and 
after  Rome,  176;  effect  of  her 
re-union  with  Italy,  194,  195  ; 
her  position  under  the  Popes, 
194;  gradual  establishment 
of  her  power,  209 ;  modern 
analogies  to,  ib. ;  nature  of  her 
power  over  her  allies,  214- 
217;  analogies  with  its  in- 
ternal constitution,  214;  her 
treatment  of  her  allies,  217, 
218;  comparison  of  her  power 
in  East  and  West,  239. 

Rome,  RouM,  Sultans  of,  135; 
144,  145. 

JRouman  language,  its  origin,  115. 

Roumans,  their  relation  to  the 
Slavs,  103;  growth  of,  119. 

Rudolf  of  Habshurg,  King,  not 
Emperor,  139. 

Russian  Emjnre,  153,  154. 

'P<B/:ia(ot,  use  of  the  name,  73  ;  86  ; 
117;   141;   146. 

S. 

Samuel,  Bulgarian  Tzar,  133. 

San  Marino,  relations  of,  217. 

Saxon  Emperors,  their  work,  130, 
131;  their  wars  with  the 
Magyars,  161. 

Saxons,  first  mentioned,  64. 

Scandinavia,  Roman  influence  in, 
94. 

Scotland,  compared  with  Switzer- 
land, 198. 

Second  Century  B.C.,  advance  of 
Rome  in,  55-59  ;  time  of  Bar- 
barian revival,  62. 

Seleukid  Kings,  their  position,  36  ; 
their  relations  to  Rome,  56,  57. 

Seljuk  Turks,  their  conquest,  166. 

Sentinum,  battle  of,  44. 

>S7<tVei?,  English,  their  position,  210. 

Sicily,  its  relations  to  Greece,  14 ; 


falls  away  from  Greek  life,  1 7  ; 
Phoenician  and  Greek  settle- 
ments in,  25;  tlieir  warfare, 
30 ;  help  for  sought  in  Greece, 
32-34  ;  war  of  Rome  and 
Carthage  for,  47  ;  its  conquest 
by  the  Saracens,  and  recovery, 
I34>  1355  incorporated  with 
Italy,  194. 

Sidonius  Ajiollinaris,  44. 

Sikans,  mention  of  in  Homer,  20. 

Sikels,  mention  of  in  Homer,  20. 

Simeon,  Bulgarian  Tzar,  113. 

Sixth  Century  A.D.,  its  historical 
character,  124-126. 

Sixth  Century  B.C.,  greatest  time 
of  free  Hellas,  23. 

Slaves,  their  relation  to  Rome, 
East  and  West,  94 ;  their  po- 
sition compared  with  that  of 
the  Teutons,  100;  their  north- 
ern and  southern  divisions,  ib. ; 
their  relations  to  tlie  Eastern 
Empire,  102;  116;  to  the 
Roumans,  103  ;  to  the  Western 
Church,  182. 

Spain,  her  historic  position,  48  ; 
strife  of  Eome  and  Carthage 
for,  49 ;  Teutonic  settlements 
in,  88  ;  how  affected  by  the 
Teutonic  invasions,  91  ;  cha- 
racter of  its  history,  ib. ;  its 
conquest  and  recovery,  134. 

Stephen   Dv^han,    Servian    Tzar, 

"3- 

Strabo,  his  description  of  the 
Lykian  League,  223. 

Suevians,  their  settlement  in 
Spain,  122. 

Sulla,  Lucius,  his  work,  61. 

Swabian  Em2)erors,  their  posi- 
tion, 148,  149;  compared 
with  the  Austrian,  ib. 

Svntzerland,  represents  Burgundy, 
197,  198;  compared  with  Scot- 
land, 198;  reproduces  Achaia, 
199;  position  of  cities  in,  ib. ; 
its   German   origin,    201  ;    its 


250 


INDEX. 


Confederation  contrasted  with 

that  of  Germany,  203. 
Syharis,  its  time  of  greatness,  25. 
Syracuse,  its   time  of  greatness, 

Syria,  its  position  under  Rome, 
61 ;  Saracen  conquest  of,  133. 

T. 

Taras,    Tarentum,    its    time    of 

greatness,  25. 
Tauromerdon,  its  long  resistance, 

134,  135- 

Teutonic  nations,  their  relation  to 
the  Roman  Church,  181,  182. 

Teutonic  race,  beginning  of  its 
threefold  history,  64. 

Teutons,  Roman  influence  extended 
by  their  settlements,  93. 

Theodoric,  the  East-Goth,  44  ;  his 
earlier  history,  80  ;  99 ;  his 
position,  96,  97  ;  123,  124;  his 
system  dependent  on  himself 
alone,  97. 

Theodoric,  the  West-Goth,  44. 

Theojyhilos,  Emperor,  annexes 
Cherson,  222. 

Thessalonike,  Empire  of,  143. 

Third  Century  B.C.,  36,  37 ; 
compared  with  the  fifth  century 
A.D.,  81. 

Thiicydides,  his  experience  com- 
pared with   that   of  Polybios, 

35,  36. 
Trajan,  his  reign,  75,  76;  loss  of 
his  conquests,  77;  Lis  corre- 
spondence with  Pliny,  225,226; 
233—239  ;  his  dealings  with 
the  provinces  and  allies,  226; 
with  Nikom^deia,  235  ;     with 


Apameia,  236;  with  Amisos, 
237;  his  respect  for  treaties,  ib. 

Trehizond,  Empire  of,  143. 

5>e6es,  united  into  nations,  187; 
in  England,  188;  in  Gaul,  189. 

U. 

Unction,   practice   of,    75 ;    first 

use  of  at  Rome,  105. 
United  States,  its  Federal  system, 

199. 

V. 

Vandals,   their    settlements,    88, 

89;   122. 
VercellcB,  battle  of,  44. 
Vienna,  siege  of  in  1683,  171. 

W. 

Western  Emperors,  their  Eastern 
wars,  161. 

Western  Empire,  in  what  sense 
German,  11 2-1 16  ;  becomes 
GeiTaan,  130-132;  practically 
ends  with  Frederick  the  vSecond, 
136-138  ;   its  later  character, 

147-149- 
West/alia,    Peace    of,    compared 

with  that  of  Constance,  139. 


Year  407  A.D.,  Teutonic  invasion 
of  Gaul  in,  87  ;  best  beginning 
of  modem  history,  161,  162. 


Zanva,  battle  of,  its  effect,  53,  54. 
Zones  of  Greek  Influence,  14,  15. 
Zu  alien  Zeiten  Mehrer  des  Reichs, 
title  of,  109. 


THE    END. 


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